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APPLIED  EUGENICS 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

KEW   YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO    •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA    ■    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON    •   BOMBAY    •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


BY 
PAUL  POPENOE 

EDITOR  OF  THE  JOURNAL  OF  HEREDITY  (ORGAN  OF 

THE  AMERICAN  GENETIC  ASSOCIATION), 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

AND 

ROSWELL  HILL  JOHNSON 

PROFESSOR  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  PITTSBURG 


^m  fork 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1918 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1918, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  October,  igi8. 


Educatioil 
LJbrar] 

Ha 

751 
7^1 


PREFACE 

The  science  of  eugenics  consists  of  a  foundation  of  biology 
and  a  superstructure  of  sociology.  Gal  ton,  its  founder,  em- 
phasized both  parts  in  due  proportion.  Until  recently,  how- 
ever, most  sociologists  have  been  either  indifferent  or  hostile 
to  eugenics,  and  the  science  has  been  left  for  the  most  part  in 
the  hands  of  biologists,  who  have  naturally  worked  most  on  the 
foundations  and  neglected  the  superstructure.  Although  we  are 
not  disposed  to  minimize  the  importance  of  the  biological  part, 
we  think  it  desirable  that  the  means  of  applying  the  biological 
principles  should  be  more  carefully  studied.  The  reader  of  this 
book  will,  consequently,  find  only  a  summary  explanation  of  the 
mechanism  of  inheritance.  Emphasis  has  rather  been  laid  on 
the  practical  means  by  which  society  may  encourage  the  re- 
production of  superior  persons  and  discourage  that  of  inferiors. 

We  assume  that  in  general,  a  eugenically  superior  or  desirable 
person  has,  to  a  greater  degree  than  the  average,  the  germinal 
basis  for  the  following  characteristics:  to  live  past  maturity,  to 
reproduce  adequately,  to  live  happily  and  to  make  contributions 
to  the  productivity,  happiness,  and  progress  of  society.  It  is 
desirable  to  discriminate  as  much  as  possible  between  the  pos- 
session of  the  germinal  basis  and  the  observed  achievement, 
since  the  latter  consists  of  the  former  plus  or  minus  environ- 
mental influence.  But  where  the  amount  of  modification  is  too 
obscure  to  be  detected,  it  is  advantageous  to  take  the  demon- 
strated achievement  as  a  tentative  measure  of  the  germinal 
basis.  The  problem  of  eugenics  is  to  make  such  legal,  social 
and  economic  adjustments  that  (i)  a  larger  proportion  of  su- 
perior persons  will  have  children  than  at  present,  (2)  that  the 
average  number  of  offspring  of  each  superior  person  will  be 
greater  than  at  present,  (3)  that  the  most  inferior  persons  will 
have  no  children,  and  finally  that  (4)  other  inferior  persons  will 


674143 


vi  PREFACE 

have  fewer  children  than  now.  The  science  of  eugenics  is  still 
young  and  much  of  its  program  must  be  tentative  and  subject 
to  the  test  of  actual  experiment.  It  is  more  important  that 
the  student  acquire  the  habit  of  looking  at  society  from  a  bio- 
logical as  well  as  a  sociological  point  of  view,  than  that  he  put 
his  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  any  particular  mode  of  procedure. 

The  essential  points  of  our  eugenics  program  were  laid  down 
by  Professor  Johnson  in  an  article  entitled  "Human  Evolution 
and  its  Control"  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  January, 
19 lo.  Considerable  parts  of  the  material  in  the  present  book 
have  appeared  in  the  Journal  of  Heredity.  Helpful  suggestions 
and  criticism  have  been  received  from  several  friends,  in  par- 
ticular Sewall  Wright  and  0.  E.  Baker  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture. 

PAUL  POPENOE. 
Washington,  June,  1918. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface      v 

Introduction  by  Edward  A.  Ross xi 

CHAPTER 

r  I.  Nature  or  Nurture? 
V  f  II.  Modification  of  the  Germ-Plasm    . 
VJII.  Differences  Among  Men 

CV.  The  Inheritance  of  Mental  Capacities 
V.  The  Laws  of  Heredity    . 
^I.  Natural  Selection. 
.^•^11.  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Eugenics 
'^  VviII.  Desirability  of  Restrictive  Eugenics 
^iX.  The  Dysgenic  Classes 
.  /"X.  Methods  of  Restriction 
n  [  XI.  The  Improvement  of  Sexual  Selection 

XII.  Increasing  the  Marriage  Rate  of  the  Superior  237 
^/XIII.  Increase  of  the  Birth-Rate  of  the  Superior.         .   255 

S  (  XIV.  The  Color  Line 280 

>-XV.  Immigration    ........  298 

XVI.  War        ....  ...  318 

XVII.  Genealogy  and  Eugenics 329 

XVIII.  The  Eugenic  Aspect  OF  Some  Specific  Reforms  .  352 

Taxation     ........  352 

Back  to  the  Farm  Movement  .  355 

Democracy  ........  360 

Socialism 362 

Child  Labor         .         .         .  .  .  368 

Compulsory  Education         .....  369 
Vocational  Guidance  and  Training      .  -371 

Minimum  Wage    .......  374 

Mother's  Pensions 375 

Housing 376 

Feminism 378 


Movement  147 
167 
176 
184 
211 


VIU 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

page 

Old  Age  Pensions        .... 

•  384 

Sex  Hygiene  Movement 

.        .  38s 

Trades  Unionism          .... 

.  388 

Prohibition.         .         .         .         . 

.  389 

Pedagogical  Celibacy 

•        •  390 

XIX.  Religion  AND  Eugenics   . 

•  393 

XX.  Eugenics  AND  EuTHENics. 

.   402 

Appendix  A.  Ovarian  Transplantation 

•  419 

"     B.  Dynamic  Evolution 

.  421 

"     C.  The  "Melting  Pot"        .         . 

.  424 

"     D.  The  Essence  of  Mendelism    . 

•  429 

"     E.  Useful  Works  of  Reference  . 

.  436 

"     F.  Glossary 

.  437 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FIGURE 

Four  Baby  Girls  at  Once  facing 

The  Effect  of  Nurture  in  Changing  Nature         .     " 
Height  in  Corn  and  Men  .         .     " 

Why  Men  Grow  Short  or  Tall  ..... 

Bound  Foot  of  a  Chinese  Woman      .  .  .  facing 

Defective  Little  Toe  of  a  Prehistoric  Egyptian         " 
Effect  of  Lead  as  a  "  Racial  Poison"  .         .     " 

Distribution  of  lo- Year-Old  School  Children 
Variation  in  Ability  ...... 

Origin  of  a  Normal  Probability  Curve 
The  "Chance"  or  "Probability"  Form  of  Distribution 
Probability  Curve  with  Increased  Number  of  Steps     . 
Normal  Variability  Curve  Following  Law  of  Chance 

facing 
Cadets  Arranged  to  Show  Normal  Curve  of  Variability 

facing 
Variation  in  Heights  of  Recruits  to  the  American  Army 
How  Do  You  Clasp  Your  Hands?  .  .  facing 

The  Effect  of  Orthodactyly 
A  Family  with  Orthodactyly 
White  Blaze  in  the  Hair  .         .  .  .facing 

20.  A  Family  of  Spotted  Negroes 

21.  A  Human  Finger-Tip 

22.  The  Limits  of  Hereditary  Control 

23.  The  Distribution  of  Intelligence 
The  Twins  whose  Finger-Prints  are  Shown  in  Fig.  25 

facing 
Finger-Prints  of  Twins 
A  Home  of  the  "Hickory"  Family     . 
A  Chieftain  of  the  Hickory  Clan 
Two  Juke  Homes  of  the  Present  Day 
Mongolian  Deficiency 
Feeble-Minded  Men  are  Capable  of  Much  Rough  Labor 

facing 


I. 

2. 
3- 
4- 
5- 
6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 
10. 
II. 
12. 
13- 

14. 

15- 
16. 

17- 
18. 
19. 


24. 

25- 

26. 

27. 
28. 
29. 
30. 


PAGE 

page   6 

<< 

10 

(( 

12 

H 

page  42 

<< 

42 

(C 

63 

76 

77 

78 

79 

80 

page    80 

page    82 

.     82 

page  100 

102 

.   102 

page  104 

"    104 

"    106 

"    106 

.   106 

page  108 
no 
168 
170 
172 
174 

page  192 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FIGURE 

31.  Feeble-Minded  at  a  Vineland  Colony 

32.  How  Beauty  Aids  a  Girl's  Chance  of  Marriage 

33.  Intelligent  Girls  are  Most  Likely  to  Marry 

34.  Years  Between  Graduation  and  Marriage  . 

35.  The  Effect  of  Late  Marriages   . 

36.  Wellesley  Graduates  and  Non-Graduates   . 

37.  Birth  Rate  of  Harvard  and  Yale  Graduates 

38.  Families  of  Prominent  Methodists     . 


PAGE 

.  facing  page  192 

215 

216 
217 

218 
242 
266 
263 


39- 
40. 
41. 
42. 

43- 
44. 

45- 
46. 


Examining  Immigrants  at  Ellis  Island,  New  York,  facing  page  303 


Line  of  Ascent  that  Carries  the  Family  Name 

The  Small  Value  of  a  Famous,  but  Remote,  Ancestor. 

History  of  100  Babies       ..... 

Adult  Morality 

Influence  of  Mother's  Age         .  .  .  .  . 

The  "Mean  Man"  of  the  Old  White  American  Stock 
The  Carriers  of  Heredity  .         .         .         .      " 


331 
338 
344 
345 
347 
425 
431 


INTRODUCTION 

The  Great  War  has  caused  a  vast  destruction  of  the  sounder 
portion  of  the  belligerent  peoples  and  it  is  certain  that  in  the 
next  generation  the  progeny  of  their  weaker  members  will  con- 
stitute a  much  larger  proportion  of  the  whole  than  would  have 
been  the  case  if  the  War  had  not  occurred.  Owing  to  this  im- 
measurable calamity  that  has  befallen  the  white  race,  the  ques- 
tion of  eugenics  has  ceased  to  be  merely  academic.  It  looms 
large  whenever  we  consider  the  means  of  avoiding  a  stagnation 
or  even  decline  of  our  civilization  in  consequence  of  the  losses 
the  War  has  inflicted  upon  the  more  valuable  stocks.  Eugenics 
is  by  no  means  tender  with  established  customs  and  institutions, 
and  once  it  seemed  likely  that  its  teachings  would  be  left  for 
our  grandchildren  to  act  on.  But  the  plowshare  of  war  has 
turned  up  the  tough  sod  of  custom,  and  now  every  sound  new 
idea  has  a  chance.  Rooted  prejudices  have  been  leveled  like 
the  forests  of  Picardy  under  gun  fire.  The  fear  of  racial  decline 
provides  the  eugenist  with  a  far  stronger  leverage  than  did  the 
hope  of  accelerating  racial  progress.  It  may  be,  then,  that  owing 
to  the  War  eugenic  policies  will  gain  as  much  ground  by  the 
middle  of  this  century  as  without  it  they  would  have  gained  by 
the  end  of  the  century. 

This  book  could  not  have  been  written  ten  years  ago  because 
many  of  the  data  it  relies  on  were  not  then  in  existence.  In 
view  of  inquiries  now  going  on,  we  may  reasonably  hope  that 
ten  years  hence  it  will  be  possible  to  make  a  much  better  book  on 
the  subject.  But  I  am  sure  that  this  book  is  as  good  a  presenta- 
tion as  can  be  made  of  eugenics  at  its  present  stage  of  develop- 
ment. The  results  of  all  the  trustworthy  observations  and  ex- 
periments have  been  taken  into  account,  and  the  testing  of 
human  customs  and  institutions  in  the  light  of  biological  prin- 
ciples tallies  well  with  the  sociology  of  our  times. 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

I  cannot  understand  how  any  conscientious  person,  dealing 
in  a  large  way  with  human  life,  should  have  the  hardihood  to 
ignore  eugenics.  This  book  should  command  the  attention 
not  only  of  students  of  sociology,  but,  as  well,  of  philanthropists, 
social  workers,  settlement  wardens,  doctors,  clergymen,  educa- 
tors, editors,  publicists,  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretaries  and  industrial 
engineers.  It  ought  to  lie  at  the  elbow  of  law-makers,  statesmen, 
poor  relief  officials,  immigration  inspectors,  judges  of  juven- 
ile courts,  probation  officers,  members  of  state  boards  of  con- 
trol and  heads  of  charitable  and  correctional  institutions.  Fi- 
nally, the  thoughtful  ought  to  find  in  it  guidance  in  their  prob- 
lem of  mating.  It  will  inspire  the  superior  to  rise  above  certain 
worldly  ideals  of  life  and  to  aim  at  a  family  success  rather  than 
an  individual  success. 

Edward  Alsworth  Ross. 

The  University  of  Wisconsin 
Madison,  Wisconsin 
July  1918. 


APPLIED   EUGENICS 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 

CHAPTER  I 
NATURE  OR  NURTURE? 

At  the  First  Race  Betterment  Conference  held  at  Battle 
Creek,  Mich.,  many  methods  were  suggested  by  which  it  was 
beUeved  that  the  people  of  America  might  be  made,  on  the 
average,  healthier,  happier,  and  more  efl&cient.  One  afternoon 
the  discussion  turned  to  the  children  of  the  slmns.  Their  condi- 
tion was  pictured  in  dark  colors.  A  number  of  eugenists  re- 
marked that  they  were  in  many  cases  handicapped  by  a  poor 
heredity.  Then  Jacob  Riis — a  man  for  whom  every  American 
must  feel  a  profound  admiration — strode  upon  the  platform, 
filled  with  indignation. 

"We  have  heard  .friends  here  talk  about  heredity,"  he  ex- 
claimed. "The  word  has  rung  in  my  ears  until  I  am  sick  of  it. 
Heredity!  Heredity !  There  is  just  one  heredity  in  all  the  world 
that  is  ours — ^we  are  children  of  God,  and  there  is  nothing  in 
the  whole  big  world  that  we  cannot  do  in  His  service  with  it." 

It  is  probably  not  beyond  the  truth  to  say  that  in  this  state- 
ment Jacob  Riis  voiced  the  opinion  of  a  majority  of  the  social 
workers  of  this  country,  and  likewise  a  majority  of  the  people 
who  are  faithfully  and  with  much  self-sacrifice  supporting  chari- 
ties, upUft  movements,  reform  legislation,  and  philanthropic 
attempts  at  social  betterment  in  many  directions.  They  sup- 
pose that  they  are  at  the  same  time  making  the  race  better  by 
rnakfng  the  conditions  better  in  which  people  live. 

It  is  widely  supposed  that,  although  nature  may  have  distrib- 
uted some  handicaps  at  birth,  they  can  be  removed  if  the  body 
is  properly  warmed  and  fed  and  the  mind  properly  exercised. 
It  is  further  widely  supposed  that  this  improvement  in  the 
condition  of  the  individual  will  result  in  his  production  of  better 


2  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

infants,  and  that  thus  the  race,  gaining  a  little  momentum  in 
each  generation,  wUl  gradually  move  on  toward  ultimate  per- 
fection. 

There  is  no  lack  of  efforts  to  improve  the  race,  by  this  method 
of  direct  change  of  the  environment.  It  involves  two  assump- 
tions, which  are  sometimes  made  explicitly,  sometimes  merely 
taken  for  granted.    These  are: 

I.  That  changes  in  a  man's  surroundings,  or,  to  use  the  more 
7^       technical  biological  term,  in  his  nurture,  wiU  change  the  nature 


)" 


that  he  has  inherited. 

2.  That  such  changes  will  further  be  transmitted  to  his 
children. 

Any  one  who  proposes  methods  of  race  betterment,  as  we  do 
in  the  present  book,  must  meet  these  two  popular  behefs.  We 
shall  therefore  examine  the  first  of  them  in  this  chapter,  and 
the  second  in  Chapter  II. 

Galton  adopted  and  populari2ed  Shakespere's  antithesis  of 
naiure  and  nurture  to  describe  a  man's  inheritance  and  his  sur- 
roundings, the  two  terms  including  everything  that  can  pertain 
to  a  human  being.  The  words  are  not  wholly  suitable,  par- 
ticularly since  nature  has  two  distinct  meanings,— human  na- 
ture and  external  nature.  The  first  is  the  only  one  considered 
by  Galton.  Further,  nurture  is  capable  of  subdivision  into 
those  environmental  influences  which  do  not  undergo  much 
change,— e.  g.,  soil  and  climate,— and  those  forces  of  civiliza- 
tion and  education  which  might  better  be  described  as  culture. 
The  evolutionist  has  really  to  deal  with  the  three  factors  of 
germ-plasm,  physical  surroundings  and  culture.  But  Galton's 
phrase  is^  so  widely  current  that  we  shall  continue  to  use  it, 
with  the  impUcations  that  have  just  been  outlined. 

The  antithesis  of  nature  and  nurture  is  not  a  new  one;  it  was 
met  long  ago  by  biologists  and  settled  by  them  to  their  own 
satisfaction.  The  whole  body  of  experimental  and  observa- 
tional evidence  in  biology  tends  to  show  that  the  characters 
which  the  individual  inherits  from  his  ancestors  remain  re- 
markably constant  in  aU  ordinary  conditions  to  which  they 
may  be  subjected.    Then-  constancy  is  roughly  proportionate 


NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  3 

to  the  place  of  the  animal  in  the  scale  of  evolution;  lower  fonns 
are  more  easily  changed  by  outside  influence,  but  as  one  ascends 
to  the  higher  forms,  which  are  more  differentiated,  it  is  foimd 
more  and  more  diflScult  to  effect  any  change  in  them.  Their 
characters  are  more  definitely  fixed  at  birth.  ^ 

It  is  with  the  highest  of  all  forms,  Man,  that  we  have  now 
to  deal.  The  student  in  biology  is  not  likely  to  doubt  that  the 
differences  in  men  are  due  much  more  to  inherited  nature  than 
to  any  influences  brought  to  bear  after  birth,  even  though  these 
latter  influences  include  such  powerful  ones  as  nutrition  and^ —  j 
education  within  ordinary  limits.  ^'^''^*1t^ 

But  the  biological  evidence  does  not  lend  itself  readily  to  ^3rvv/j^^ 
'     summary  treatment,  and  we  shall  therefore  examine  the  ques-  C^  >L. 
i^'tion  by  statistical  methods.^    These  have  the  further  advantage     v       '"'"^ 
of  being  more  easily  understood ;  for  facts  which  can  be  measured 
and  expressed  in  numbers  are  facts  whose  import  the  reader  can 
usually  decide  for  himself:  he  is  perfectly  able  to  determine, 
without  any  special  training,  whether  twice  two  does  or  does 
not  make  four.    One  further  preliminary  remark:  the  problem 
of  nature  vs.  nurture  can  not  be  solved  in  general  terms;  a  mo- 
ment's thought  will  show  that  it  can  be  understood  only  by 
examining  one  trait  at  a  time.    The  problem  is  to  decide  whether 
the  differences  between  the  people  met  in  everyday  life  are 
due  more  to  inheritance  or  to  outside  influences,  and  these  dif- 
ferences must  naturally  be  examined  separately;  they  can  not 
be  lumped  together. 

To  ask  whether  nature  in  general  contributes  more  to  a  man 
than  nurture  is  futile;  but  it  is  not  at  all  futile  to  ask  whether     ^^     -- 
the  differences  in  a  given  human  trait  are  more  affected  by  dif-     ^^"^^ 
ferences  in  nature  than  by  differences  in  nurture.    It  is  easy 

'See  Woods,  Frederick  Adams,  "Laws  of  Diminishing  Environmental  Influ- 
-— ^  ences,"  PopvXar  Science  Monthly,  April,  igio,  pp.  313-336;  Huxley,  J.  S.,  The  Indi-  ^ 
vidual  in  the  Animal  Kingdom,  Cambridge  and  New  York,  1912.    Pike,  F.  H.,  and 
Scott,  E.  L.,  "The  Significance  of  Certain  Internal  Conditions  of  the  Organism  in 
Organic  Evolution,"  American  Naturalist,  Vol.  XLIX,  pp.  321-359,  June,  1915. 

'  There  is  one  Une  of  experiment  which  is  simple  and  striking  enough  to  deserve 
mention — namely,  ovarian  transplantation.  A  descriptioa  of  this  is  given  in  Ap- 
pendix A. 


^ 


4  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

to  see  that  a  verdict  may  be  sometimes  given  to  one  side,  some- 
times to  the  other.  Albinism  in  animals,  for  instance,  is  a  trait 
which  is  known  to  be  inherited,  and  which  is  very  slightly  af- 
fected by  differences  of  climate,  food  supply,  etc.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  are  factors  which,  although  having  inherited  bases, 
owe  their  expression  almost  wholly  to  outside  influences.  Pro- 
fessor Morgan,  for  example,  has  found  a  strain  of  fruit  flies  whose 
offspring  in  cold  weather  are  usually  born  with  supernumerary 
legs.  In  hot  weather  they  are  practically  normal.  If  this  strain 
were  bred  only  in  the  tropics,  the  abnormahty  would  probably 
not  be  noticed;  on  the  other  hand,  if  it  were  bred  only  in  cold 
regions,  it  would  be  set  down  as  one  characterized  by  dupUca- 
tion  of  hmbs.  The  heredity  factor  would  be  the  same  in  each 
case,  the  difference  in  appearance  being  due  merely  to  tem- 
perature. 

Mere  inspection  does  not  always  tell  whether  some  feature 
of  an  individual  is  more  affected  by  changes  in  heredity  or 
changes  in  surroundings.  On  seeing  a  swarthy  man,  one  may 
suppose  that  he  comes  of  a  swarthy  race,  or  that  he  is  a  fair- 
skinned  man  who  has  lived  long  in  the  desert.  In  the  one  case 
the  swarthiness  would  be  inheritable,  in  the  other  not.  Which 
explanation  is  correct,  can  only  be  told  by  examining  a  number 
of  such  individuals  under  critical  conditions,  or  by  an  examina- 
tion of  the  ancestry.  A  man  from  a  dark-skinned  race  would 
become  little  darker  by  living  under  the  desert  sun,  while  a 
white  man  would  take  on  a  good  deal  of  tan. 

The  limited  effect  of  nurture  in  changing  nature  is  in  some 
fields  a  matter  of  common  observation.  The  man  who  works 
in  the  gymnasium  knows  that  exercise  increases  the  strength 
of  a  given  group  of  muscles  for  a  while,  but  not  indefinitely. 
There  comes  a  time  when  the  limit  of  a  man's  hereditary  poten- 
tiahty  is  reached,  and  no  amount  of  exercise  will  add  another 
millimeter  to  the  circumference  of  his  arm.  Similarly  the  hand- 
ball or  tennis  player  some  day  reaches  his  highest  point,  as  do 
runners  or  race  horses.  A  trainer  could  bring  Arthur  Duffy  in  a 
few  years  to  the  point  of  running  a  hundred  yards  in  gf  seconds, 
but  no  amount  of  training  after  that  could  clip  off  another  fifth 


NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  5 

of  a  second.  A  parallel  case  is  found  in  the  students  who  take 
a  college  examination.  Half  a  dozen  of  them  may  have  de- 
voted the  same  amount  of  time  to  it — may  have  crammed  to 
the  limit — but  they  will  still  receive  widely  different  marks. 
These  commonplace  cases  show  that  nurture  has  seemingly 
some  power  to  mold  the  individual,  by  giving  his  inborn  possi- 
bilities a  chance  to  express  themselves,  but  thatnature  says  the_ 
first  and  last  word.  •  Francis  Galton,  the  father  of  eugenics,  hit 
on  an  ingenious  and  more  convincing  illustration  by  studying 
the  history  of  twins.  ^ 

There  are,  everyday  observation  shows,  two  kinds  of  twins — 
ordinary  twins  and  the  so-called  identical  twins.  Ordinary 
twms  are  merely  brothers,  or  sisters,  or  brother  and  sister,  who 
happen  to  be  born  two  at  a  time,  because  two  ova  have  de- 
veloped simultaneously.  The  fact  that  they  were  born  at  the 
same  time  does  not  make  them  alike — they  differ  quite  as  widely 
from  each  other  as  ordinary  brothers  and  sisters  do.  Identical 
twins  have  their  origin  in  a  different  phenomenon — they  are 
believed  to  be  halves  of  the  same  egg-cell,  in  which  two  growing- 
points  appeared  at  a  very  early  embryonic  stage,  each  of  these 
developing  into  a  separate  individual.  As  would  be  expected, 
these  identical  twins  are  always  of  the  same  sex,  and  extremely 
like  each  other,  so  that  sometimes  their  own  mother  can  not 
tell  them  apart.  This  likeness  extends  to  all  sorts  of  traits: — 
they  have  lost  their  milk  teeth  on  the  same  day  in  one  case, 
they  even  fell  ill  on  the  same  day  with  the  same  disease,  even 
though  they  were  in  different  cities. 

Now  Galton  reasoned  that  if  environment  really  changes  the 
inborn  character,  then  these  identical  twins,  who  start  life  as 
halves  of  the  same  whole,  ought  to  become  more  unlike  if  they 
were  brought  up  apart;  and  as  they  grew  older  and  moved  into 
different  spheres  of  activity,  they  ought  to  become  measurably 
dissimilar.  On  the  other  hand,  ordinary  twins,  who  start  dis- 
similar, ought  to  become  more  alike  when  brought  up  in  the 

*  Galton,  Francis,  Inquiries  into  Human  Faculty,  1907  edition,  pp.  153-173-  This 
volume  of  Gallon's,  which  was  first  published  in  1883,  has  been  reissued  in  Every- 
man's Library,  and  should  be  read  by  all  eugenists. 


fe 


6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

same  family,  on  the  same  diet,  among  the  same  friends,  with 
the  same  education.  If  the  course  of  years  shows  that  identical 
twins  remain  as  like  as  ever  and  ordinary  twins  as  unlike  as 
ever,  regardless  of  changes  in  conditions,  then  environment  will 
have  failed  to  demonstrate  that  it  has  any  great  power  to  modify 
one's  inborn  nature  in  these  traits. 

With  this  view,  Galton  collected  the  history  of  eighty  pairs 
of  identical  twins,  thirty-five  cases  being  accompanied  by  very 
full  details,  which  showed  that  the  twins  were  really  as  nearly 
identical,  in  childhood,  as  one  could  expect  to  find.  On  this 
point,  Galton's  inquiries  were  careful,  and  the  replies  satisfac- 
tory. They  are  not,  however,  as  he  remarks,  much  varied  in 
character.  "When  the  twins  are  children,  they  are  usually 
distinguished  by  ribbons  tied  around  the  wrist  or  neck;  never- 
theless the  one  is  sometimes  fed,  physicked,  and  whipped  by 
mistake  for  the  other,  and  the  description  of  these  Uttle  domestic 
catastrophes  was  usually  given  by  the  mother,  in  a  phraseology, 
that  is  sometimes  touching  by  reason  of  its  seriousness.  I  have 
one  case  in  which  a  doubt  remains  whether  the  children  were 
not  changed  in  their  bath,  and  the  presumed  A  is  not  really  B, 
and  vice  versa.  In  another  case,  an  artist  was  engaged  on  the 
portraits  of  twins  who  were  between  three  and  four  years  of 
age;  he  had  to  lay  aside  his  work  for  three  weeks,  and,  on  re- 
suming it,  could  not  tell  to  which  child  the  respective  likeness 
he  had  in  hand  belonged.  The  mistakes  become  less  numerous 
on  the  part  of  the  mother  during  the  boyhood  and  girlhood  of 
the  twins,  but  are  almost  as  frequent  as  before  on  the  part  of 
strangers.  I  have  many  instances  of  tutors  being  unable  to 
distinguish  their  twin  pupils.  Two  girls  used  regularly  to  im- 
pose on  their  music  teacher  when  one  of  them  wanted  a  whole 
hoUday;  they  had  their  lessons  at  separate  hours,  and  the  one 
girl  sacrificed  herself  to  receive  two  lessons  on  the  same  day, 
while  the  other  one  enjoyed  herself  from  morning  to  evening. 
Here  is  a  brief  and  comprehensive  account:  'Exactly  alike  in 
all,  their  schoolmasters  could  never  tell  them  apart;  at  dancing 
parties  they  constantly  changed  partners  without  discovery; 
their  close  resemblance  is  scarcely  diminished  by  age.' 


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NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  7 

"The  following  is  a  typical  schoolboy  anecdote: 

"'Two  twins  were  fond  of  playing  tricks,  and  complaints 
were  frequently  made;  but  the  boys  would  never  own  which 
was  the  guilty  one,  and  the  complainants  were  never  certain 
which  of  the  two  it  was.  One  head  master  used  to  say  he  would 
never  flog  the  innocent  for  the  guilty,  and  the  other  used  to 
flog  them  both.' 

"No  less  than  nine  anecdotes  have  reached  me  of  a  twin 
seeing  his  or  her  reflection  in  the  looking-glass,  and  addressing 
it  in  the  belief  that  it  was  the  other  twin  in  person, 

"Children  are  usually  quick  in  distinguishing  between  their 
parent  and  his  or  her  twin;  but  I  have  two  cases  to  the  contrary. 
Thus,  the  daughter  of  a  twin  says: 

"'Such  was  the  marvelous  similarity  of  their  features,  voice, 
manner,  etc.,  that  I  remember,  as  a  child,  being  very  much 
puzzled,  and  I  think,  had  my  aunt  lived  much  with  us,  I  should 
have  ended  by  thinking  I  had  two  mothers!' 

"In  the  other  case,  a  father  who  was  a  twin,  remarks  of  him- 
self and  his  brother: 

"'We  were  extremely  ahke,  and  are  so  at  this  moment,  so 
much  so  that  our  children  up  to  five  and  six  years  old  did  not 
know  us  apart.' 

"Among  my  thirty-five  detailed  cases  of  close  similarity, 
there  are  no  less  than  seven  in  which  both  twins  suffered  from 
some  special  ailment  or  had  some  exceptional  peculiarity.  Both 
twins  are  apt  to  sicken  at  the  same  time  in  no  less  than  nine 
out  of  the  thirty-five  cases.  Either  their  illnesses,  to  which  I 
refer,  were  non-contagious,  or,  if  contagious,  the  twins  caught 
them  simultaneously;  they  did  not  catch  them  the  one  from 
the  other." 

Similarity  in  association  of  ideas,  in  tastes  and  habits  was 
equally  close.  In  short,  their  resemblances  were  not  superficial, 
but  extremely  intimate,  both  in  mind  and  body,  while  they 
were  young;  they  were  reared  almost  exactly  alike  up  to  their 
early  manhood  and  womanhood. 

Then  they  separated  into  different  walks  of  life.  Did  this 
change  of  the  environment  alter  their  inborn  character?    For 


8  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

the  detailed  evidence,  one  should  consult  Gal  ton's  own  account; 
we  give  only  his  conclusions: 

In  many  cases  the  resemblance  of  body  and  mind  continued 
unaltered  up  to  old  age,  notwithstanding  very  different  condi- 
tions of  life;  in  others  a  severe  disease  was  sufficient  to  account 
for  some  change  noticed.  Other  dissimilarity  that  developed, 
Galton  had  reason  to  believe,  was  due  to  the  development  of 
inborn  characters  that  appeared  late  in  life.  He  therefore  felt 
justified  in  broadly  concluding  "that  the  only  circumstance, 
within  the  range  of  those  by  which  persons  of  similar  conditions 
of  life  are  affected,  that  is  capable  of  producing  a  marked  ef  ect 
on  the  character  of  adults,  is  illness  or  some  accident  which 
causes  physical  infirmity.  The  twins  who  closely  resembled 
each  other  in  childhood  and  early  youth,  and  were  reared  under 
not  very  dissimilar  conditions,  either  grow  unlike  through  the 
development  of  natural  [that  is,  inherited]  characteristics  which 
had  lain  dormant  at  first,  or  else  they  continue  their  lives,  keep- 
ing time  like  two  watches,  hardly  to  be  thrown  out  of  accord 
except  by  some  physical  jar." 

Here  was  a  distinct  failure  of  nurture  to  modify  the  inborn 
nature.  We  next  consider  the  ordinary  twins  who  were  unlike 
from  the  start.  Galton  had  twenty  such  cases,  given  with 
much  detail.  "It  is  a  fact,"  he  observes,  "that  extreme  dis- 
similarity, such  as  existed  between  Jacob  and  Esau,  is  a  no  less 
rnarked  peculiarity  of  twins  of  the  same  sex  than  extreme 
similarity."  The  character  of  the  evidence  as  a  whole  may  be 
fairly  conveyed  by  a  few  quotations: 

(i)  One  parent  says:  "They  have  had  exactly  the  same  nurture 
from  their  birth  up  to  the  present  time;  they  are  both  perfectly 
healthy  and  strong,  yet  they  are  otherwise  as  dissimilar  as  two 
boys  could  be,  physically,  mentally,  and  in  their  emotional 
nature." 

(2)  "I  can  answer  most  decidedly  that  the  twins  have  been 
perfectly  dissimilar  in  character,  habits,  and  likeness  from  the 
moment  of  their  birth  to  the  present  time,  though  they  were 
nursed  by  the  same  woman,  went  to  school  together,  and  were 
never  separated  until  the  age  of  thirteen." 


NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  9 

(3)  "They  have  never  been  separated,  never  the  least  dif- 
ferently treated  in  food,  clothing,  or  education;  both  teethed  at 
the  same  time,  both  had  measles,  whooping  cough,  and  scarla- 
tina at  the  same  time,  and  neither  has  had  any  other  serious 
illness.  Both  are  and  have  been  exceedingly  healthy,  and  have 
good  abilities,  yet  they  differ  as  much  from  each  other  in  mental 
cast  as  any  one  of  my  family  differs  from  another." 

(4)  "Very  dissimilar  in  mind  and  body;  the  one  is  quiet,  re- 
tiring, and  slow  but  sure;  good-tempered,  but  disposed  to  be 
sulky  when  provoked; — the  other  is  quick,  vivacious,  forward, 
acquiring  easily  and  forgetting  soon;  quick-tempered  and 
choleric,  but  quickly  forgiving  and  forgetting.  They  have 
been  educated  together  and  never  separated." 

(5)  "They  were  never  alike  either  in  mind  or  body,  and 
their  dissimilarity  increases  daily.  The  external  influences 
have  been  identical;  they  have  never  been  separated." 

(6)  "The  two  sisters  are  very  different  in  ability  and  disposi- 
tion. The  one  is  retiring,  but  firm  and  determined;  she  has  no 
taste  for  music  or  drawing.  The  other  is  of  an  active,  excitable 
temperament;  she  displays  an  unusual  amount  of  quickness  and 
talent,  and  is  passionately  fond  of  music  and  drawing.  From 
infancy,  they  have  been  rarely  separated  even  at  school,  and 
as  children  visiting  their  friends,  they  always  went  together." 

And  so  on.  Not  a  single  case  was  found  in  which  originally 
dissimilar  characters  became  assimilated,  although  submitted 
to  exactly  the  same  influences.  Reviewing  the  evidence  in  his 
usual  cautious  way,  Galton  declared,  "There  is  no  escape  from 
the  conclusion  that  nature  prevails  enormously  over  nurture, 
when  the  differences  of  nurture  do  not  exceed  what  is  commonly 
to  be  found  among  persons  of  the  same  rank  in  society  and  in 
the  same  country." 

This  kind  of  evidence  wks  a  good  start  for  eugenics  but  as 
the  science  grew,  it  outgrew  such  evidence.  It  no  longer  wanted 
to  be  told,  no  matter  how  minute  the  details,  that  "nature  pre- 
vails enormously  over  nurture."  It  wanted  to  know  exactly 
how  much.  It  refused  to  be  satisfied  with  the  statement  that 
a  certain  quantity  was  large;  it  demanded  that  it  be  measured 


lo  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

or  weighed.  So  Gallon,  Karl  Pearson  and  other  mathematicians 
devised  means  of  doing  this,  and  then  Professor  Edward  L. 
Thorndike  of  Columbia  University  took  up  Gallon's  problem 
again,  with  more  refined  methods. 

The  tool  used  by  Professor  Thorndike  was  the  coefficient  of 
£Oia«iatioTr,  which  shows  the  amount  of  resemblance  or  associa- 
tion between  any  two  things  that  are  capable  of  measurement, 
and  is  expressed  in  the  form  of  a  decimal  fraction  somewhere 
between  o  and  the  unit  i.  Zero  shows  that  there  is  no  constant 
resemblance  at  all  between  the  two  things  concerned, — that 
they  are  wholly  independent  of  each  other,  while  i  shows  that 
they  are  completely  dependent  on  each  other, ,  a  condition  that 
rarely  exists,  of  course.^  For  instance,  the  correlation  between 
the  right  and  left  femur  in  man's  legs  is  .98. 

Professor  Thorndike  found  in  the  New  York  City  schools 
fifty  pairs  of  twins  of  about  the  same  age  and  measured  the 
closeness  of  their  resemblance  in  eight  physical  characters,  and 
also  in  six  mental  characters,  the  latter  being  measured  by  the 
proficiency  with  which  the  subjects  performed  various  tests. 
Then  children  of  the  same  age  and  sex,  picked  at  random  from 
the  same  schools,  were  measured  in  the  same  way.  It  was  thus 
possible  to  tell  how  much  more  alike  twins  were  than  ordinary 
children  in  the  same  environment.^ 

'Tf  now  these  resemblances  are  due  to  the  fact  that  the  two 
members  of  any  twin  pair  are  treated  alike  at  home,  have  the 
same  parental  models,  attend  the  same  school  and  are  subject 
in  general  to  closely  similar  environmental  conditions,  then 

^  What  is  said  here  refers  to  positive  correlations,  which  are  the  only  kind  in- 
volved in  this  problem.  Correlations  may  also  be  negative,  lying  between  o  and  — i ; 
for  instance,  if  we  measured  the  correlation  between  a  man's  lack  of  appetite  and 
the  time  that  had  elapsed  since  his  last  meal,  we  would  have  to  express  it  by  a  nega- 
tive fraction,  the  minus  sign  showing  that  the  greater  his  satiety,  the  less  would 
be  the  time  since  his  repast.  The  best  introduction  to  correlations  is  Elderton's 
Primer  of  Statistics  (London,  1912). 

*  Dr.  Thorndike's  careful  measurements  showed  that  it  is  impossible  to  draw  a 
hard  and  fast  line  between  identical  twins  and  ordinary  twins.  There  is  no  ques- 
tion as  to  the  existence  of  the  two  kinds,  but  the  ordinary  twins  may  happen  to  be 
so  nearly  alike  as  to  resemble  identical  twins.  Accordingly,  mere  appearance  is 
not  a  safe  criterion  of  the  identity  of  twins.  His  researches  were  published  in  the 
Archives  of  Philosophy,  Psychology  and  Scientific  Methods,  No.  i,  New  York,  1905. 


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NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  ii 

(i)  twins  should,  up  to  the  age  of  lea\'ing  home,  grow  more  and 
more  alike,  and  in  our  measurements  the  twins  13  and  14  years 
old  should  be  much  more  alike  than  those  9  and  10  years  old. 
Again  (2)  if  similarity  in  training  is  the  cause  of  similarity  in 
mental  traits,  ordinary  fraternal  pairs  not  over  four  or  five  years 
apart  in  age  should  show  a  resemblance  somewhat  nearly  as 
great  as  twin  pairs,  for  the  home  and  school  condition  of  a  pair 
of  the  former  wall  not  be  much  less  similar  than  those  of  a  pair 
of  the  latter.  Again,  (3)  if  training  is  the  cause,  twins  should 
show  greater  resemblance  in  the  case  of  traits  much  subject  to 
training,  such  as  abihty  in  addition  or  multipUcation,  than  in 
traits  less  subject  to  training,  such  as  quickness  in  marking  off 
the  A's  on  a  sheet  of  printed  capitals,  or  in  writing  the  opposites 
of  words." 

The  data  were  elaborately  analyzed  from  many  pwints  of 
view.  They  showed  (i)  that  the  twins  12-14  years  old  were  not 
any  more  ahke  than  the  twins  9-1 1  years  old,  although  they 
ought  to  have  been,  if  en\dronment  has  great  power  to  mold 
the  character  during  these  so-called  ''plastic  years  of  child- 
hood." They  showed  (2)  that  the  resemblance  between  twins 
was  two  or  three  times  as  great  as  between  ordinary  children 
of  the  same  age  and  sex,  brought  up  under  similar  environment. 
There  seems  to  be  no  reason,  except  heredity,  why  twins  should 
be  more  alike.  The  data  showed  (3)  that  the  twins  were  no 
more  aUke  in  traits  subject  to  much  training  than  in  traits  sub- 
ject to  Uttle  or  no  training.  Their  achievement  in  these  traits 
was  determined  by  their  heredity;  training  did  not  measurably 
alter  these  hereditary  potentialities. 

"The  facts,"  Professor  Thorndike  wrote,  ''are  easily,  simply 
and  completely  explained  by  one  simple  hypothesis;  namely, 
that  the  nature  of  the  germ-cells — the  conditions  of  conception — 
cause  whatever  similarities  and  differences  exist  in  the  original 
natures  of  men,  that  these  conditions  influence  mind  and  body 
equally,  and  that  in  life  the  differences  in  modification  of  mind 
and  body  produced  by  such  differences  as  obtain  between  the 
environments  of  present-day  New  York  City  public  school 
children  are  sUght." 


12  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

"The  inferences,"  he  says,  "with  respect  to  the  enormous 
importance  of  original  nature  in  determining  the  behavior  and 
achievements  of  any  man  in  comparison  with  his  fellows  of  the 
same  period  of  civilization  and  conditions  of  life  are  obvious. 
All  theories  of  human  life  must  accept  as  a  first  principle  the 
fact  that  human  beings  at  birth  differ  enormously  in  mental 
capacities  and  that  these  differences  are  largely  due  to  similar 
differences  in  their  ancestry.  All  attempts  to  change  human 
nature  must  accept  as  their  most  important  condition  the  limits 
set  by  original  nature  to  each  individual." 

Meantime  other  investigators,  principally  followers  of  Karl 
Pearson  in  England,  were  working  out  correlation  coefficients 
in  other  lines  of  research  for  hundreds  of  different  traits.  As 
we  show  in  more  detail  in  Chapter  IV,  it  was  found,  no  matter 
what  physical  or  mental  trait  was  measured,  that  the  coefficient 
of  correlation  between  parent  and  child  was  a  little  less  than  .5 
and  that  the  coefficient  between  brother  and  brother,  or  sister 
and  sister,  or  brother  and  sister,  was  a  little  more  than  .5.  On 
the  average  of  many  cases  the  mean  "nature"  value,  the  co- 
efficient of  direct  heredity,  was  placed  at  .51.  This  gave  another 
means  of  measuring  nurture,  for  it  was  also  possible  to  measure 
the  relation  between  any  trait  in  the  child  and  some  facton  in 
the  environment.    A  specific  instance  will  make  this  clearer. 

Groups  of  school  children  usually  show  an  appalling  per- 
centage of  short-sightedness.  Now  suppose  it  is  suggested  that 
this  is  because  they  are  allowed  to  learn  to  read  at  too  early  an 
age.  One  can  find  out  the  age  at  which  any  given  child  did 
learn  to  read,  and  work  out  the  coefficient  of  correlation  be- 
tween this  age  and  the  child's  amount  of  myopia.  If  the  rela- 
tion between  them  is  very  close — say  .7  or  .8 — it  will  be  evident 
that  the  earlier  a  child  learns  to  read,  the  more  short-sighted  he 
is  as  he  grows  older.  This  will  not_proye  a  relation  of  cause 
and  effectj  but  it  will  at  least  create  a  great  suspicion.  If  on 
tKecontrary  the  correlation  is  very  slight,  it  will  be  evident 
that  early  reading  has  little  to  do  with  the  prevalance  of  defec- 
tive vision  among  school  children.  If  investigators  similarly 
work  out  all  the  other  correlations  that  can  be  suggested,  finding 


HEIGHT  IN  CORN  AND  MEN 
Fig.  3. — An  unusually  short  and  an  unusually  tall  man,  photographed 
beside  extreme  varieties  of  corn  which,  like  the  men,  owe  their  differences 
in  height  indisputably  to  heredity  rather  than  to  environment.  No  im- 
aginable environmental  differences  could  reverse  the  positions  of  these  two 
men,  or  of  these  two  varieties  of  corn,  the  heredity  in  each  case  being  what 
it  is.  The  large  one  might  be  stunted,  but  the  small  one  could  not  be 
made  much  larger.    Photograph  from  A.  F.  Blakeslee. 


NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  13 

whether  there  is  any  regular  relation  between  myopia  and 
overcrowding,  long  hours  of  study,  general  economic  conditions 
at  home,  general  physical  or  moral  conditions  of  parents,  the 
time  the  child  spends  out  of  doors,  etc.,  and  if  no  important 
relation  is  found  between  these  various  factors  and  myopia, 
it  will  be  evident  that  no  factor  of  the  environment  which  one 
can  think  of  as  likely  to  cause  the  trouble  really  accounts  for 
the  poor  eyesight  of  school  children. 

This  has  actually  been  done,^  and  none  of  the  conditions 
enumerated  has  been  found  to  be  closely  related  to  myopia 
in  school  children.  Correlations  between  fifteen  environmen- 
tal conditions  and  the  goodness  of  children's  eyesight  were 
measured,  and  only  in  one  case  was  the  correlation  as  high  as  .1. 
The  mean  of  these  correlations  was  about  .04 — an  absolutely 
negligible  quantity  when  compared  with  the  common  heredity 
coeflBcient  of  .51. 

Does  this  prove  that  the  myopia  is  rather  due  to  heredity? 
It  would,  by  a  process  of  exclusion,  if  every  conceivable  en- 
vironmental factor  had  been  measured  and  found  wanting. 
That  point  in  the  investigation  can  never  be  reached,  but  a 
tremendously  strong  suspicion  is  at  least  justiiied.  Now  if  the 
degree  of  resemblance  between  the  prevalence  of  myopia  in 
parents  and  that  in  children  be  directly  measured,  and  if  it 
be  found  that  when  the  parent  has  eye  trouble  the  child  also 
has  it,  then  it  seems  that  a  general  knowledge  of  heredity  should 
lead  to  the  belief  that  the  difficulty  lies  there,  and  that  an 
environmental  cause  for  the  poor  vision  of  the  school  child  was 
being  sought,  when  it  was  all  the  time  due  almost  entirely  to 
heredity.  This  final  step  has  not  yet  been  completed  in  an 
adequate  way,^  but  the  evidence,  partly  analogical,  gives  every 

*  A  First  Study  of  the  Inheritance  of  Vision  and  the  Relative  Influence  of  Heredity 
and  Environment  on  Sight.  By  Amy  Barrington  and  Karl  Pearson.  Eugenics  Lab- 
oratory (London),  Memoir  Series  V. 

^  Dr.  James  Alexander  Wilson,  assistant  surgeon  of  the  Opthalmic  Institute,  Glas- 
gow, published  an  analysis  of  1,500  cases  of  myopia  in  the  British  Medical  Journal, 
P-  395,  August  29,  1914.  His  methods  are  not  above  criticism,  and  too  much  im- 
portance should  not  be  attached  to  his  results,  which  show  that  in  58%  of  the  cases 
heredity  can  be  credited  with  the  myopia  of  the  patient.  In  12%  of  the  cases  it  was 
due  to  inflammation  of  the  cornea  (keratitis)  while  in  the  remaining  30%  no  heredi- 


14 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


reason  to  believe  in  the  soundness  of  the  conclusion  stated,  that 
in  most  cases  the  schoolboy  must  wear  glasses  because  of  his 
heredity,  not  because  of  overstudy  or  any  neglect  on  the  part 
of  his  parents  to  care  for  his  eyes  properly  during  his  childhood. 
The  extent  to  which  the  inteUigence  of  school  children  is 


P-T-O  Ch-O    OrO 


e-        5' 10'- 


5'4"       I'a?' 


6'a6"       s-y 


WHY  MEN  GROW  SHORT  OR  TALL 
Fig.  4. — Pedigree  charts  of  the  two  men  shown  in  the  preceding  illustration. 
Squares  represent  men  and  circles  women;  figures  underlined  denote  measurement  in 
stocking  feet.  It  is  obvious  from  a  comparison  of  the  ancestry  of  the  two  men  that  the 
short  one  comes  from  a  predominantly  short  family,  while  the  tall  one  gains  his  height 
likewise  from  heredity.  The  shortest  individual  in  the  right-hand  chart  would  have 
been  accounted  tall  in  the  family  represented  on  the  left.    After  A.  F.  Blakeslee. 

dependent  on  defective  physique  and  unfavorable  home  environ- 
ment is  an  important  practical  question,  which  David  Heron  of 
London  attacked  by  the  methods  we  have  outlined.  He  wanted 
to  find  out  whether  the  healthy  children  were  the  most  intelli- 
gent. One  is  constantly  hearing  stories  of  how  the  intelligence 
of  school  children  has  been  improved  by  some  treatment  which 
improved  their  general  health,  but  these  stories  are  rarely  pre- 
sented in  such  a  way  as  to  contribute  evidence  of  scientific 
value.    It  was  desirable  to  know  what  exact  measurement  would 

tary  influence  could  be  proved,  but  various  reasons  made  him  feel  certain  that  in 
many  cases  it  existed.  The  distribution  of  myopia  by  trades  and  professions  among 
his  patients  is  suggestive:  65%  of  the  cases  among  school  children  showed  myopic 
heredity;  63%  among  housewives  and  domestic  servants;  68%  among  shop  and 
factory  works;  60%  among  clerks  and  typists;  60%  among  laborers  and  miners.  If 
environment  really  played  an  active  part,  one  would  not  expect  to  find  this  similar- 
ity in  percentages  between  laborers  and  clerks,  between  housewives  and  school- 
teachers, etc. 


NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  15 

show.  The  inteUigence  of  all  the  children  in  fourteen  schools 
was  measured  in  its  correlation  with  weight  and  height,  condi- 
tions of  clothing  and  teeth,  state  of  nutrition,  cleanliness,  good 
hearing,  and  the  condition  of  the  cervical  glands,  tonsils  and 
adenoids.  It  could  not  be  found  that  mental  capacity  was 
closely  related  to  any  of  the  characters  dealt  with.^  The  par- 
ticular set  of  characters  measured  was  taken  because  it  hap- 
pened to  be  furnished  by  data  collected  for  another  purpose; 
the  various  items  are  suggestive  rather  than  directly  conclusive. 
Here  again,  the  correlation  in  most  cases  was  less  than  .1,  as 
compared  with  the  general  heredity  correlation  of  .5. 

The  investigation  need  not  be  limited  to  problems  of  bad 
breeding.  Eugenics,  as  its  name  shows,  is  primarily  interested 
in  "good  breeding;"  it  is  particularly  worth  while,  therefore, 
to  examine  the  relations  between  heredity  and  environment  in 
the  production  of  mental  and  moral  superiority. 

If  success  in  life — the  kind  of  success  that  is  due  to  great 
mental  and  moral  superiority — is  due  to  the  opportunities  a 
man  has,  then  it  ought  to  be  pretty  evenly  distributed  among 
all  persons  who  have  had  favorable  opportunities,  provided  a 
large  enough  number  of  persons  be  taken  to  allow  the  laws  of 
probability  full  play.  England  offers  a  good  field  to  investigate 
this  point,  because  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  her  two  great  uni- 
versities, turn  out  most  of  the  eminent  men  of  the  country,  or 
at  least  have  done  so  until  recently.  If  nothing  more  is  neces- 
sary to  ensure  a  youth's  success  than  to  give  him  a  first-class 
education  and  the  chance  to  associate  with  superior  people, 
then  the  prizes  of  life  ought  to  be  pretty  evenly  distributed 
among  the  graduates  of  the  two  universities,  during  a  period  of 
a  century  or  two. 

This  is  not  the  case.  When  we  look  at  the  history  of  England, 
as  Galton  did  nearly  half  a  century  ago,  we  find  success  in  life 
to  an  unexpected  degree  a  family  affair.  The  distinguished 
father  is  hkely  to  have  a  distinguished  son,  while  the  son  of  two 

^  The  Influence  of  Unfavourable  Home  Environment  and  Defective  Physique  on  the 
Intelligence  of  School  Children.  By  David  Heron.  Eugenics  Laboratory  (London), 
Memoir  Series  No.  VIII. 


i6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

"nobodies"  has  a  very  small  chance  of  becoming  distinguished. 
To  cite  one  concrete  case,  Galton  found  ^  that  the  son  of  a  dis- 
tinguished judge  had  about  one  chance  in  four  of  becoming  him- 
self distinguished,  while  the  son  of  a  man  picked  out  at  random 
from  the  population  had  about  one  chance  in  4,000  of  becoming 
similarly  distinguished. 

The  objection  at  once  occurs  that  perhaps  social  opportuni- 
ties might  play  the  predominant  part;  that  the  son  of  an  ob- 
scure man  never  gets  a  chance,  while  the  son  of  the  prominent 
man  is  pushed  forward  regardless  of  his  inherent  abilities.  This, 
as  Galton  argued  at  length,  can  not  be  true  of  men  of  really 
eminent  attainments.  The  true  genius,  he  thought,  frequently 
succeeds  in  rising  despite  great  obstacles,  while  no  amount  of 
family  pull  will  succeed  in  making  a  mediocrity  into  a  genius, 
although  it  may  land  him  in  some  high  and  very  comfortable 
ofl&cial  position.  Galton  found  a  good  illustration  in  the  papacy, 
where  during  many  centuries  it  was  the  custom  for  a  pope  to 
adopt  one  of  his  nephews  as  a  son,  and  push  him  forward  in 
every  way.  If  opportunity  were  all  that  is  required,  these 
adopted  sons  ought  to  have  reached  eminence  as  often  as  a  real 
son  would  have  done;  but  statistics  show  that  they  reached 
eminence  only  as  often  as  would  be  expected  for  nephews  of 
great  men,  whose  chance  is  notably  less,  of  course,  than  that 
of  sons  of  great  men,  in  whom  the  intensity  of  heredity  is  much 
greater. 

Transfer  the  inquiry  to  America,  and  it  becomes  even  more 
conclusive,  for  this  is  supposed  to  be  the  country  of  equal  oppor- 
tunities, where  it  is  a  po£ular_tradition  that  every  boy  has  a 
chance  to  become  president.  Success  may  be  in  some  degree 
a  family  affair  in  caste-ridden  England;  is  it  possible  that  the 
past  history  of  the  United  States  should  show  the  same  state  of 
affairs? 

Galton  found  that  about  half  of  the  great  men  of  England 
had  distinguished  close  relatives.  If  the  great  men  of  America 
have  fewer  distinguished  close  relatives,  environment  will  be 
able  to  make  out  a  plausible  case:  it  will  be  evident  that  in 

^  Hereditary  Genius;  an  Inquiry  into  its  Laws  and  Consequences.    London,  1869. 


NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  17 

this  continent  of  boundless  opportunities  the  boy  with  ambition 
and  energy  gets  to  the  top,  and  that  this  ambition  and  energy 
do  not  depend  on  the  kind  of  family  he  comes  from. 

Frederick  Adams  Woods  has  made  precisely  this  investiga- 
tion.^ The  first  step  was  to  find  out  how  many  eminent  men 
there  are  in  American  history.  Biographical  dictionaries  fist 
about  3,500,  and  this  number  provides  a  sufficiently  unbiased 
standard  from  which  to  work.  Now,  Dr.  Woods  says,  if  we 
suppose  the  average  person  to  have  as  many  as  twenty  close 
relatives — as  near  as  an  uncle  or  a  grandson — then  computation 
shows  that  only  one  person  in  500  in  the  United  States  has  a 
chance  to  be  a  near  relative  of  one  of  the  3,500  eminent  men — 
provided  it  is  purely  a  matter  of  chance.  As  a  fact,  the  3,500 
eminent  men  listed  by  the  biographical  dictionaries  are  related 
to  each  other  not  as  one  in  500,  but  as  one  in  five.  If  the  more 
celebrated  meiT alone  be  considered,  it  is  found  that  the  per- 
centage increases  so  that  about  one  in  three  of  them  has  a  close 
relative  who  is  also  distinguished.  This  ratio  increases  to  more 
than  one  in  two  when  the  families  of  the  forty-six  Americans  in 
the  Hall  of  Fame  are  made  the  basis  of  study.  If  all  the  eminent 
relations  of  those  in  the  Hall  of  Fame  are  counted,  they  average 
more  than  one  apiece.  Therefore,  they  are  from  five  hundred 
to  a  thousand  times  as  much  related  to  distinguished  people  as 
the  ordinary  mortal  is. 

To  look  at  it  from  another  point  of  view,  something  like  1% 
of  the  population  of  the  country  is  as  likely  to  produce  a  man 
of  genius  as  is  all  the  rest  of  the  population  put  together, — the 
other  99%. 

This  might  still  be  due  |n  some  degree  to  family  influencBj  to^ 
the  prestige  of  a  famous  nanie,^  or  to  educational  advantages 
afforded  the  sons  of  successful  men.    Dr.  Woods'  study  of  the 
royal  families  of  Europe  is  more  decisive.^ 

•Woods,  Frederick  Adams,  "Heredity  and  the  Hall  of  Fame,"  Poptdar  Science 
Monthly,  May,  1913. 

^  Woods,  Frederick  Adams,  Mental  and,  Moral  Heredity  in  Royalty,  New  York, 
1906.  See  also  "Sovereigns  and  the  Supposed  Influence  of  Opportunity,"  Science, 
n.  s.,  XXXIX,  No.  1016,  pp.  902-905,  June  19,  1914,  where  Dr.  Woods  answers 
some  criticisms  of  his  work. 


i8  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

In  the  latter  group,  the  environment  must  be  admitted — on 
the  whole — to  be  uniformly  favorable.  It  has  varied,  naturally, 
in  each  case,  but  speaking  broadly  it  is  certain  that  all  the  mem- 
bers of  this  group  have  had  the  advantage  of  a  good  education, 
of  unusual  care  and  attention.  If  such  things  affect  achieve- 
ment, then  the  achievements  of  this  class  ought  to  be  pretty 
generally  distributed  among  the  whole  class.  If  opportunity 
is  the  cause  of  a  man's  success,  then  most  of  the  members  of  this 
class  ought  to  have  succeeded,  because  to  every  one  of  royal 
blood,  the  door  of  opportunity  usually  stands  open.  One  would 
expect  the  heir  to  the  throne  to  show  a  better  record  than  his 
younger  brothers,  however,  because  his  opportunity  to  distin- 
guish himself  is  naturally  greater.  This  last  point  will  be  dis- 
cussed first. 

Dr.  Woods  divided  all  the  individuals  in  his  study  into  ten 
classes  for  intellectuality  and  ten  for  morality,  those  most  de- 
ficient in  the  qualities  being  put  in  class  i,  while  the  men  and 
women  of  preeminent  intellectual  and  moral  worth  were  put  in 
class  ID.  Now  if  preeminent  intellect  and  morality  were  at  all 
linked  with  the  better  chances  that  an  inheritor  of  succession 
has,  then  heirs  to  the  throne  ought  to  be  more  plentiful  in  the 
higher  grades  than  in  the  lower.  Actual  count  shows  this  not 
to  be  the  case.  A  slightly  larger  percentage  of  inheritors  is 
rather  to  be  found  in  the  lower  grades.  The  younger  sons  have 
made  just  as  good  a  showing  as  the  sons  who  succeeded  to  power; 
as  one  would  expect  if  intellect  and  morality  are  due  largely  to 
heredity,  but  as  one  would  not  expect  if  intellect  and  moraUty 
are  due  largely  to  outward  circumstances. 

Are  "conditions  of  turmoil,  stress  and  adversity"  strong 
forces  m  the  production  of  great  men,  as  has  often  been  claimed? 
There  is  no  evidence  from  facts  to  support  that  view.  In  the 
case  of  a  few  great  commanders,  the  times  seemed  particularly 
favorable.  Napoleon,  for  example,  could  hardly  have  been 
Napoleon  had  it  not  been  for  the  French  revolution.  But  in 
general  there  have  been  wars  going  on  during  the  whole  period 
of  modern  European  history;  there  have  always  been  oppor- 
tunities for  a  royal  hero  to  make  his  appearance;  but  often  the 


NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  19 

country  has  called  for  many  years  in  vain.  Circumstances 
were  powerless  to  produce  a  great  man  and  the  nation  had  to 
wait  until  heredity  produced  him.  Spain  has  for  several  cen- 
turies been  calling  for  genius  in  leadership  in  some  lines;  but  in 
vain.  England  could  not  get  an  able  man  from  the  Stuart  line, 
despite  her  need,  and  had  to  wait  for  William  of  Orange,  who 
was  a  descendant  of  a  man  of  genius,  WilUam  the  Silent.  "  Italy 
had  to  wait  fifty  years  in  bondage  for  her  deliverers,  Cavour, 
Garibaldi  and  Victor  Emmanuel." 

''The  upshot  of  it  all,"  Dr.  Woods  decides,  "is  that,  as  re- 
gards intellectual  life,  environment  is  a  totally  inadequate  ex- 
planation. If  it  explains  certain  characters  in  certain  instances, 
it  always  fails  to  explain  many  more,  while  heredity  not  only 
explains  all,  or  at  least  90%,  of  the  intellectual  side  of  character 
in  practically  every  instance,  but  does  so  best  when  questions 
of  environment  are  left  out  of  discussion." 

Despite  the  good  environment  almost  uniformly  present,  the 
geniuses  in  royalty  are  not  scattered  over  the  surface  of  the 
pedigree  chart,  but  form  isolated  little  groups  of  closely  related 
individuals.  One  centers  in  Frederick  the  Great,  another  in 
Queen  Isabella  of  Spain,  a  third  in  William  the  Silent,  and  a 
fourth  in  Gustavus  Adolphus.  Furthermore,  the  royal  per- 
sonages who  are  conspicuously  low  in  intellect  and  morality 
are  similarly  grouped.  Careful  study  of  the  circumstances  shows 
nothing  in  the  environment  that  would  produce  this  grouping 
of  genius,  while  it  is  exactly  what  a  knowledge  of  heredityTeadS" 
(^SeToexpect. 

In  the  next  place,  do  the  superior  members  of  royalty  have 
proportionately  more  superior  individuals  among  their  close 
relatjves^\as  was  found  to  be  the  case  among  the  Americans  in 
the  Hall  of  Fame?  A  count  shows  at  once  that  they  do.  The 
first  six  grades  all  have  about  an  equal  number  of  eminent  rela- 
tives, but  grade  7  has  more  while  grade  8  has  more  than  grade  7, 
and  the  geniuses  of  grade  10  have  the  highest  proportion  of 
nearer  relatives  of  their  own  character.  Surely  it  cannot  be 
supposed  that  a  relative  of  a  king  in  grade  8  has  on  the  average 
a  much  less  favorable  environment  than  a  relative  of  a  king  in 


20  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

grade  lo.     Is  it  not  fair,  then,  to  assume  that  this  relative's 
greater  endowment  in  the  latter  case  is  due  to  heredity? 

Conditions  are  the  same,  whether  males  or  fenjj|,les  be  con- 
sidered. The  royal  families  of  Europe  offer  a  test  case  because 
for  them  the  environment  is  nearly  uniformly  favorable.  A 
study  of  them  shows  great  mental  and  moral  differences  be- 
tween them,  and  critical  evidence  indicates  that  these  differ- 
ences are  largely  due  to  differences  in  heredity.  Differences  of 
opportunity  do  not  appear  to  be  largely  responsible  for  the, 
achievements  of  the  individu3(ls. 

But,  it  is  sometimes  objected,  opportunity  certainly  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  appearance  of  much  talent  that  would  other- 
wise never  appear.  Take  the  great  increase  in  the  number  of 
^^ — ■ — ^  scientific  men  in  Germany  during  the  last  half  century,  for 
A  J[f  /)Cy3  example.  It  can  not  be  pretended  that  this  is  due  to  an  in- 
.A-aM^ .  creased  birth-rate  of  such  talent;  it  means  that  the  growth  of 
an  appreciation  of  scientific  work  has  produced  an  increased 
amount  of  scientific  talent.  J.  McKeen  Cattell  has  argued  this 
point  most  carefully  in  his  study  of  the  families  of  one  thousand 
American  men  of  science  (Popular  Science  Monthly,  May,  1915). 
"A  Darwin  born  in  China  in  1809,"  he  says,  "could  not  have 
become  a  Darwin,  nor  could  a  Lincoln  born  here  on  the  same 
day  have  become  a  Lincoln  had  there  been  no  Civil  War.  If 
the  two  infants  had  been  exchanged  there  would  have  been  no 
Darwin  in  America  and  no  Lincoln  in  England."  And  so  he 
continues,  urging  that  in  the  production  of  scientific  men,  at 
least,  education  is  more  important  than  eugenics. 

This  line  of  argument  contains  a  great  deal  of  obvious  truth, 
but  is  subject  to  a  somewhat  obvious  objection,  if  it  is  pushed  too 
far.  It  is  certainly  true  that  the  exact  field  in  which  a  man's 
activities  will  find  play  is  largely  determined  by  his  surroundings 
and  education.  Young  men  in  the  United  States  are  now  be- 
coming lawyers  or  men  of  science,  who  would  have  become 
ministers  had  they  been  born  a  century  or  two  ago.  But  this 
environmental  influence  seems  to  us  a  minor  one,  for  the  man 
who  is  highly  gifted  in  some  one  line  is  usually,  as  all  the  work  of 
differential  psychology  shows,  gifted  more  than  the  average  in 


!^^ 


NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  21 

many  other  lines.  Opportunity  decides  in  just  what  field  his 
life  work  shall  lie;  but  he  would  be  able  to  make  a  success  in  a 
number  of  fields.  Darwin  born  in  America  would  probably  not 
have  become  the  Darwin  we  know,  but  it  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  he  would  have  died  a  "mute,  inglorious  Milton":  it  is  not 
likely  that  he  would  have  failed  to  make  his  mark  in  some  line 
of  human  activity.  Dr.  Cattell's  argument,  then,  while  ad- 
missible, can  not  properly  be  urged  against  the  fact  that  ability 
is  mainly  dependent  on  inheritance. 

We  need  not  stop  with  the  conclusion  that  equality  of  training 
or  opportunity  is  unable  to  level  the  inborn  differences  between 
men.    We  can  go  even  farther,  and  produce  evidence  to  show 
that  equality  of   training  increases  the  diffi 
achieved.  .._- 

This  evidence  is  obtained  by  measuring  the  effects  of  equal 
amounts  of  exercise  of  a  function  upon  individual  differences  in 
respect  to  efficiency  in  it.  Suppose  one  should  pick  out,  at 
random,  eight  children,  and  let  them  do  problems  in  multiplica- 
tion for  10  minutes.  After  a  number  of  such  trials,  the  three 
best  might  average  39  correct  solutions  in  the  10  minutes,  and 
the  three  poorest  might  average  25  examples.  Then  let  them 
continue  the  work,  until  each  one  of  them  has  done  700  exam- 
ples. Here  is  equality  in  training;  does  it  lead  to  uniform  re- 
sults? 

Dr.  Starch  made  the  actual  test  which  we  have  outlined  and 
found  that  the  three  best  pupils  gained  on  the  average  45  in  the 
course  of  doing  700  examples;  while  the  three  poorest  gained 
only  26  in  the  same  course  of  time. 

Similar  tests  have  been  made  of  school  children  in  a  number  of 
instances,  and  have  shown  that  equality  of  training  fails  to 
bring  about  equality  of  performance.  All  improve  to  some 
extent;  but  those  who  are  naturally  better  than  their  comrades 
usually  become  better  still,  when  conditions  for  all  are  the  same. 
E.  L.  Thorndike  gives  ^  the  following  tabular  statement  of  a 
test  he  conducted : 

1  Educational  Psychology,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  306.  Starch's  results  are  also  quoted  from 
Thorndike. 


•JT 


22 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


The  Effect  of  Equal  Amounts  of  Practice  upon  Individual  Differ- 
ences IN  the  Mental  Multiplication  of  a  Three-place 
BY  a  Three-place  Nltmber 


Anwtint  done 
per  unit  of 
time 


Percentage  of 
correct  figures 
in  answers 


63 

Initial  highest  five  individuals 5.1 

"        next    five        "  5.1 

"        six  "  5.3 

six  "  5.4 

"  "        five         "  S.2 

"  "        one  individual    5.2 


05 
56 
46 
38 
31 
19 


147 
107 
68 
46 
57 
32 


61 
51 


26 
13 


ta 

H 
>^ 

70 

68 
74 
58 
47 
100 


78  18 

78  10 

82  8 

70  12 

67  20 

82  -18 


Similar  results  have  been  obtained  by  half  a  dozen  other 
experimenters,  using  the  tests  of  mental  multiplication,  addi- 
tion, marking  A's  on  a  printed  sheet  of  capitals,  and  the  like. 
It  would  be  a  mistake  to  conclude  too  much  from  experiments  of 
such  restricted  scope;  but  they  all  agree  in  showing  that  if  every 
child  were  given  an  equal  training,  the  differences  in  these 
traits  would  nevertheless  be  very  great. 

And  although  we  do  not  wish  to  strain  the  application  of 
these  results  too  far,  we  are  at  least  justified  in  saying  that  they 
strongly  indicate  that  inborn  mediocrity  can  not  be  made  into  a 
high  grade  of  talent  by  training.  Not  every  boy  has  a  chance  to 
distinguish  himself,  even  if  he  receives  a  good  education. 

We  are  driven  back  to  the  same  old  conclusion,  that  it  is 
primarily  inborn  nature  which  causes  the  achievements  of  men 
and  women  to  be  what  they  are.  Good^environment,  oppor- 
tunity, training,  will  give  good  heredity  a  chance  to  express 
itself;  but  they  can  not  produce  greatness  from  bad  heredity. 

These  conclusions  are  familiar  to  scientific  sociologists,  but 
they  have  not  yet  had  the  influence  on  social  service  and  prac- 
tical attempts  at  reform  which  they  deserve.  Many  popular 
writers  continue  to  confuse  cause  and  effect,  as  for  example 


NATURE  OR  NURTURE?  23 

H.  Addington  Bruce,  who  contributed  an  article  to  the  Century 
Magazine,  not  long  ago,  on  "The  Boy  Who  Goes  Wrong." 
After  alleging  that  the  boy  who  goes  wrong  does  so  because  he  is 
not  properly  brought  up,  Mr.  Bruce  quotes  with  approval  the 
following  passage  from  Paul  Dubois,  "  the  eminent  Swiss  physi- 
cian and  philosopher: 

"If  you  have  the  happiness  to  be  a  well-living  man,  take  care 
not  to  attribute  the  credit  of  it  to  yourself.  Remember  the 
favorable  conditions  in  which  you  have  lived,  surrounded  by  the 
relatives  who  loved  you  and  set  you  a  good  example;  do  not 
forget  the  close  friends  who  have  taken  you  by  the  hand  and 
led  you  away  from  the  quagmires  of  evil;  keep  a  grateful  re- 
membrance for  all  the  teachers  who  have  influenced  you,  the 
kind  and  intelligent  school-master,  the  devoted  pastor;  realize 
all  these  multiple  influences  which  have  made  you  what  you  are. 
Then  you  will  remember  that  such  and  such  a  culprit  has  not 
in  his  sad  life  met  with  these  favorable  conditions;  that  he  had  a 
drunken  father  or  a  foolish  mother,  and  that  he  has  Uved  without 
affection,  exposed  to  all  kinds  of  temptation.  You  will  then  take 
pity  upon  this  disinherited  man,  whose  mind  has  been  nourished 
upon  malformed  mental  images,  begetting  evil  sentiments  such 
as  immoderate  desire  or  social  hatred." 

Mr.  Bruce  indorses  this  kind  of  talk  when  he  concludes,  "The 
blame  for  the  boy  who  goes  wrong  does  not  rest  with  the  boy 
himself,  or  yet  with  his  remote  ancestors.  It  rests  squarely  with 
the  parents  who,  through  ignorance  or  neglect,  have  failed  to 
mold  him  aright  in  the  plastic  days  of  childhood." 

Where  is  the  evidence  of  the  existence  of  these  plastic  days  of 
childhood?  If  they  exist,  why  do  not  ordinary  brothers  become 
as  much  alike  as  identical  twins?  How  long  are  we  to  be  asked  to 
believe,  on  blind  faith,  that  the  child  is  putty,  of  which  the  edu- 
cator can  make  either  mediocrity  or  genius,  depending  on  his 
skill?  What  does  the  environmentalist  know  about  these 
"plastic  days"?  If  a  boy  has  a  drunken  father  or  foolish 
mother,  does  it  not  suggest  that  there  is  something  wrong  with 
his  pedigree?  With  such  an  ancestry,  we  do  not  expect  him  to 
turn  out  brilliantly,  no  matter  in  what  home  he  is  brought  up. 


24  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

If  a  boy  has  the  kind  of  parents  who  bring  him  up  well;  if  he  is, 
as  Dr.  Dubois  says,  surrounded  by  relatives  who  love  him  and 
set  him  a  good  example,  we  at  once  have  ground  for  a  suspicion 
that  he  comes  of  a  pretty  good  family,  a  stock  characterized 
by  a  high  standard  of  intellectuahty  and  morality,  and  it  would 
surprise  us  if  such  a  boy  did  not  turn  out  well.  But  he  turns 
out  well  because  what's  bred  in  the  bone  will  show  in  him,  if  it 
gets  any  kind  of  a  chance.  It  is  his  nature,  not  his  nurture,  that 
is  mainly  responsible  for  his  character. 


CHAPTER  II 
MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM 

Every  living  creature  was  at  some  stage  of  its  life  nothing  more 
than  a  single  cell.  It  is  generally  known  that  human  beings  re- 
sult from  the  union  of  an  egg-cell  and  a  sperm-cell,  but  it  is  not  so 
universally  understood  that  these  germ-cells  are  part  of  a  con- 
tinuous stream  of  germ-plasm  which  has  been  in  existence  ever 
since  the  appearance  of  life  on  the  globe,  and  which  is  destined 
to  continue  in  existence  as  long  as  life  remains  on  the  globe. 

The  corollaries  of  this  fact  are  of  great  importance.  Some  of 
them  will  be  considered  in  this  chapter. 

Early  investigators  tended  naturally  to  look  on  the  germ- 
cells  as  a  product  of  the  body.  Being  supposedly  products  of 
the  body,  it  was  natural  to  think  that  they  would  in  some 
measure  reproduce  the  character  of  the  body  which  created  them; 
and  Darwin  elaborated  an  ingenious  hypothesis  to  explain  how 
the  various  characters  could  be  represented  in  the  germ-cell. 
The  idea  held  by  him,  in  common  with  most  other  thinkers  of 
his  period,  is  still  held  more  or  less  unconsciously  by  those  who 
have  not  given  particular  attention  to  the  subject.  Generation 
is  conceived  as  a  direct  chain:  the  body  produces  the  germ-cell 
which  produces  another  body  which  in  turn  produces  another 
germ-cell,  and  so  on. 

But  a  generation  ago  this  idea  fell  under  suspicion.  August 
Weismann,  professor  of  zoology  in  the  University  of  Freiburg, 
Germany,  made  himself  the  champion  of  the  new  idea,  about 
1885,  and  developed  it  so  effectively  that  it  is  now  a  part  of  the 
creed  of  nearly  every  biologist. 

Weismann  caused  a  general  abandonment  of  the  idea  that 
the  germ-cell  is  produced  by  the  body  in  each  generation,  and 
popularized  the  conception  of  the  germ-cell  as  a  product  of  a 
stream  of  undifferentiated  germ-plasm,  not  only  continuous  but 

25 


26  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

(potentially  at  least)  immortal.  The  body  does  not  produce  the 
germ-cells,  he  pointed  out;  instead,  the  germ-cells  produce  the 
body. 

The  basis  of  this  theory  can  best  be  understood  by  a  brief 
consideration  of  the  reproduction  of  very  simple  organisms. 

"Death  is  the  end  of  life,"  is  the  belief  of  many  other  persons 
than  the  Lotus  Eaters.  It  is  commonly  supposed  that  every- 
thing which  lives  must  eventually  die.  But  study  of  a  one-celled 
animal,  an  Infusorian,  for  example,  reveals  that  when  it  reaches 
a  certain  age  it  pinches  in  two,  and  each  half  becomes  an  In- 
fusorian in  all  appearance  identical  with  the  original  cell.  Has 
the  parent  cell  then  died?  It  may  rather  be  said  to  survive,  in 
two  parts.  Each  of  these  daughter  cells  will  in  turn  go  through 
the  same  process  of  reproduction  by  simple  fission,  and  the 
process  will  be  continued  in  their  descendants.  The  Infusorian 
can  be  called  potentially  immortal,  because  of  this  method  of 
reproduction. 

The  immortality,  as  Weismann  pointed  out,  is  not  of  the  kind 
attributed  by  the  Greeks  to  their  gods,  who  could  not  die  be- 
cause no  wound  could  destroy  them.  On  the  contrary,  the 
Infusorian  is  extremely  fragile,  and  is  dying  by  millions  at  every 
instant;  but  if  circumstances  are  favorable,  it  can  live  on;  it  is 
not  inevitably  doomed  to  die  sooner  or  later,  as  is  Man.  "It 
dies  from  accident  often,  from  old  age  never." 

Now  the  single-celled  Infusorian  is  in  many  respects  compar- 
able with  the  single-celled  germ  of  the  higher  animals.  The 
analogy  has  often  been  carried  too  far;  yet  it  remains  indisput- 
able that  the  germ-cells  of  men  reproduce  in  the  same  way — 
by  simple  fission — as  the  Infusorian  and  other  one-celled  animals 
and  plants,  and  that  they  are  organized  on  much  the  same  plan. 
Given  favorable  circumstances,  the  germ-cell  should  be  expected 
to  be  equally  immortal.  Does  it  ever  find  these  favorable  cir- 
cumstances? 

The  investigations  of  microscopists  indicate  that  it  does — 
that  evolution  has  provided  it  with  these  favorable  circum- 
stances, in  the  bodies  of  the  higher  animals.  Let  us  recall  in 
outline  the  early  history  of  the  fertilized  germ-cell,  the  zygote 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  27 

formed  by  the  union  of  ovum  and  spermatozoon.  These  two 
unite  to  form  a  single  cell,  which  is  essentially  the  same,  physio- 
logically, as  other  germ-cells.  It  divides  in  two  similar  cells; 
these  each  divide;  the  resulting  cells  again  divide,  and  so  the 
process  continues,  until  the  whole  body — a  fully  developed 
man, — has  been  produced  by  division  and  redi vision  of  the 
one  zygote. 

But  the  germ-cell  is  obviously  different  from  most  of  the  cells 
that  make  up  the  finished  product,  the  body.  The  latter  are 
highly  differentiated  and  specialized  for  different  functions — 
blood  cells,  nerve  cells,  bone  cells,  muscle  cells,  and  so  on,  each 
a  single  cell  but  each  adapted  to  do  a  certain  work,  for  which 
the  original,  undifferentiated  germ-cell  was  wholly  unfit.  It  is 
evident  that  differentiation  began  to  take  place  at  some  point 
in  the  series  of  divisions,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  development  of 
the  embryo.  ^ 

Th.  Boveri,  studying  the  development  of  a  threadworm, 
made  the  interesting  discovery  that  this  differentiation  began 
at  the  first  division.  Of  the  two  daughter-cells  produced  from 
the  zygote,  one  continued  dividing  at  a  very  slow  rate,  and  with- 
out showing  any  specialization.  Its  "line  of  descent"  produced 
only  germ-cells.  The  products  of  division  of  the  other  daughter- 
cell  began  to  differentiate,  and  soon  formed  all  the  necessary 
kinds  of  cells  to  make  up  the  body  of  the  mature  worm.  In  this 
body,  the  cells  from  the  first  daughter-cell  mentioned  were  in- 
closed, still  undifferentiated:  they  formed  the  germ-cells  of  the 
next  generation,  and  after  maturity  were  ready  to  be  ejected 
from  the  body,  and  to  form  new  threadworms. 

Imagine  this  process  taking  place  through  generation  after 
generation  of  threadworms,  and  one  will  realize  that  the  germ- 
plasm  was  passed  on  directly  from  one  generation  to  the  next; 
that  in  each  generation  it  gave  rise  to  body-plasm,  but  that  it 
did  not  at  any  time  lose  its  identity  or  continuity,  a  part  of  the 
germ-plasm  being  always  set  aside,  undifferentiated,  to  be 
handed  on  to  the  next  generation. 

In  the  light  of  this  example,  one  can  better  understand  the 
definition  of  germ-plasm  as  "that  part  of  the  substance  of  the 


28  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

parents  which  does  not  die  with  them,  but  perpetuates  itself 
in  their  offspring."  By  bringing  his  imagination  into  play,  the 
reader  will  realize  that  there  is  no  limit  to  the  backward  con- 
tinuity of  this  germ-plasm  in  the  threadworm.  Granted  that 
each  species  has  arisen  by  evolution  from  some  other,  this  germ- 
cell  which  is  observed  in  the  body  of  the  threadworm,  must  be 
regarded  as  part  of  what  may  well  be  called  a  stream  of  germ- 
plasm,  that  reaches  back  to  the  beginning  of  life  in  the  world. 
It  will  be  equally  evident  that  these  is  no  foreordained  limit  to 
the  forward  extension  of  the  stream.  It  will  continue  in  some 
branch,  as  long  as  there  are  any  threadworms  or  descendants 
of  threadworms  in  the  world. 

The  reader  may  well  express  doubt  as  to  whether  what  has 
been  demonstrated  for  the  threadworm  can  be  demonstrated 
for  the  higher  animals,  including  man.  It  must  be  admitted 
that  in  many  of  these  animals  conditions  are  too  unfavorable, 
and  the  process  of  embryology  too  complicated,  or  too  difficult  to 
observe,  to  permit  as  distinct  a  demonstration  of  this  continuity 
of  the  germ-plasm,  wherever  it  is  sought.  But  it  has  been  dem- 
onstrated in  a  great  many  animals;  no  facts  which  impair  the 
theory  have  been  discovered;  and  biologists  therefore  feel  per- 
fectly justified  in  generalizing  and  declaring  the  continuity  of 
germ-plasm  to  be  a  law  of  the  world  of  living  things. 

Focusing  attention  on  its  application  to  man,  one  sees  that 
the  race  must  represent  an  immense  network  of  lines  of  descent, 
running  back  through  a  vast  number  of  different  forms  of  gradu- 
ally diminishing  specialization,  until  it  comes  to  a  point  where 
all  its  threads  merge  in  one  knot — the  single  cell  with  which  it 
may  be  supposed  that  life  on  this  globe  began.  Each  individual 
is  not  only  figuratively,  but  in  a  very  literal  sense,  the  carrier 
of  the  heritage  of  the  whole  race — of  the  whole  past,  indeed. 
Each  individual  is  temporarily  the  custodian  of  part  of  the  "stuff 
of  life " ;  from  an  evolutionary  point  of  view,  he  may  be  said  to 
have  been  brought  into  existence,  primarily  to  pass  this  sacred 
heritage  on  to  the  next  generation.  From  Nature's  standpoint, 
he  is  of  little  use  in  the  world,  his  existence  is  scarcely  justified, 
unless  he  faithfully  discharges  this  trust,  passing  on  to  the  future 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  29 

the  "Lamp  of  Life"  whose  fire  he  has  been  created  to  guard 
for  a  short  while. 

Immortahty,  we  may  point  out  in  passing,  is  thus  no  mere 
hope  to  the  parent :  it  is  a  real  possibility.  The  death  of  the  huge 
agglomeration  of  highly  specialized  body-cells  is  a  matter  of 
little  consequence,  if  the  germ-plasm,  with  its  power  to  repro- 
duce not  only  these  body-cells,  but  the  mental  traits — indeed, 
we  may  in  a  sense  say  the  very  soul — that  inhabited  them,  has 
been  passed  on.  The  individual  continues  to  live,  in  his  off- 
spring, just  as  the  past  lives  in  him.  To  the  eugenist,  life  ever- 
lasting is  something  more  than  a  figure  of  speech  or  a  theological 
concept — it  is  as  much  a  reality  as  the  beat  of  the  heart,  the 
growth  of  muscles  or  the  activity  of  the  mind. 

This  doctrine  of  the  continuity  of  germ-plasm  throws  a 
fresh  light  on  the  nature  of  human  relationships.  It  is  evident 
that  the  son  who  resembles  his  father  can  not  accurately  be 
called  a  "chip  of  the  old  block."  Rather,  they  are  both  chips 
off  the  same  block;  and  aside  from  bringing  about  the  fusion  of 
two  distinct  strains  of  germ-plasm,  father  and  mother  are  no 
more  responsible  for  endowing  the  child  with  its  characters  ex- 
cept in  the  choice  of  mate,  than  is  the  child  for  "stamping  his 
impress ' '  on  his  parents.  From  another  point  of  view,  it  has  been 
said  that  father  and  son  ought  to  be  thought  of  as  half-brothers 
by  two  different  mothers,  each  being  the  product  of  the  same 
strain  of  paternal  germ-plasm,  but  not  of  the  same  strain  of  ma- 
ternal germ-plasm.  Biologically,  the  father  or  mother  should  not 
be  thought  of  as  the  producer  of  a  child,  but  as  the  trustee  of  a 
stream  of  germ-plasm  which  produces  a  child  whenever  the 
proper  conditions  arise.  Or  as  Sir  Michael  Foster  put  it,  "The 
animal  body  is  in  reality  a  vehicle  for  ova  or  sperm ;  and  after  the 
life  of  the  parent  has  become  potentially  renewed  in  the  offspring, 
the  body  remains  as  a  cast-off  envelope  whose  future  is  but  to 
die."  Finally  to  quote  the  metaphor  of  J.  Arthur  Thomson,  one 
may  "  think  for  a  moment  of  a  baker  who  has  a  very  precious 
kind  of  leaven;  he  uses  much  of  this  in  baking  a  large  loaf;  but  he 
so  arranges  matters  by  a  clever  contrivance  that  part  of  the 
original  leaven  is  always  carried  on  unaltered,  carefully  preserved 


30  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

for  the  next  baking.  Nature  is  the  baker,  the  loaf  is  the  body, 
the  leaven  is  the  germ-plasm,  and  each  baking  is  a  generation." 

When  the  respective  functions  and  relative  importance,  from 
a  genetic  point  of  view,  of  germ-plasm  and  body-plasm  are  under- 
stood, it  must  be  fairly  evident  that  the  natural  point  of  attack 
for  any  attempt  at  race  betterment  which  aims  to  be  funda- 
mental rather  than  wholly  superficial,  must  be  the  germ-plasm 
rather  than  the  body-plasm.  The  failure  to  hold  this  point  of 
view  has  been  responsible  for  the  disappointing  results  of  much 
of  the  sociological  theory  of  the  last  century,  and  for  the  fact 
that  some  of  the  work  now  carried  on  under  the  name  of  race 
betterment  is  producing  results  that  are  of  little  or  no  significance 
to  true  race  betterment. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  fairly  evident,  from  the  pains 
which  Nature  has  taken  to  arrange  for  the  transmission  of  the 
germ-plasm  from  generation  to  generation,  that  she  would  also 
protect  it  from  injury  with  meticulous  care.  It  seems  hardly 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  a  material  of  this  sort  should  be 
exposed,  in  the  higher  animals  at  least,  to  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  environment,  and  to  injury  or  change  from  the  chance  of 
outward  circumstances. 

In  spite  of  these  presumptions  which  the  biologist  would,  to 
say  the  least,  consider  worthy  of  careful  investigation,  the  world 
is  full  of  well-intentioned  people  who  are  anxious  to  improve 
the  race,  and  who  in  their  attempts  to  do  so,  wholly  ignore  the 
germ-plasm.  They  see  only  the  body-plasm.  They  are  devoted 
to  the  dogma  that  if  they  can  change  the  body  (and  what  is 
here  said  of  the  body  applies  equally  to  the  mind)  in  the  direc- 
tion they  wish,  this  change  will  in  some  unascertainable  way 
be  reproduced  in  the  next  generation.  They  rarely  stop  to 
think  that  man  is  an  animal,  or  that  the  science  of  biology  might 
conceivably  have  something  to  say  about  the  means  by  which 
his  species  can  be  improved;  but  if  they  do,  they  commonly  take 
refuge,  deliberately  or  unconsciously,  in  the  biology  of  half  a 
century  ago,  which  still  believed  that  these  changes  of  the  body 
could  be  so  impressed  on  the  germ-plasm  as  to  be  continued  in 
the  following  generation. 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  31 

Such  an  assumption  is  made  to-day  by  few  who  have  thor- 
oughly studied  the  subject.  Even  those  who  still  believed  in 
what  is  conventionally  called  "  the  inheritance  of  acquired  charac- 
teristics "  would  be  quick  to  repudiate  any  such  application  of  the 
doctrine  as  is  commonly  made  by  most  of  the  philanthropists  and 
social  workers  who  are  proceeding  without  seeking  the  light  of 
biology.  But  the  idea  that  these  modifications  are  inherited  is 
so  wide-spread  among  all  who  have  not  studied  biology,  and  is  so 
much  a  part  of  the  tradition  of  society,  that  the  question  must 
be  here  examined,  before  we  can  proceed  confidently  with  our 
program  of  eugenics. 

The  problem  is  first  to  be  defined. 

It  is  evident  that  all  characters  which  make  up  a  man  or 
woman,  or  any  other  organism,  must  be  either  germinal  or  ac- 
quired. It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  any  other  category. 
But  it  is  frequently  hard  to  say  in  which  class  a  given  character 
falls.  Worse  still,  many  persons  do  not  even  distinguish  the 
two  categories  accurately — a  confusion  made  easier  by.  the 
quibble  that  all  characters  must  be  acquired,  since  the  organism 
starts  from  a  single  cell,  which  possesses  practically  none  of  the 
traits  of  the  adult. 

What  we  mean  by  an  inborn  character  is  one  whose  expres- 
sion is  due  to  something  which  is  present  in  the  germ-plasm; 
one  which  is  inherent  and  due  to  heredity.  An  acquired  charac- 
ter is  simply  a  modification,  due  to  some  cause  external  to  the 
germ-plasm  acting  on  an  inborn  character.  In  looking  at  an 
individual,  one  can  not  always  say  with  certainty  which  charac- 
ters are  which;  but  with  a  little  trouble,  one  can  usually  reach 
a  reliable  decision.  It  is  possible  to  measure  the  variation 
in  a  given  character  in  a  group  of  parents  and  their  children, 
in  a  nimiber  of  different  environments;  if  the  degree  of  resem- 
blance between  parent  and  offspring  is  about  the  same  in  each 
case,  regardless  of  the  different  surroundings  in  which  the 
children  may  have  been  brought  up,  the  character  may  prop- 
erly be  called  germinal.  This  is  the  biometric  method  of  in- 
vestigation. In  practice,  one  can  often  reach  a  decision  by 
much  simpler  means:  if  the  character  is  one  that  appears  at 


32  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

birth,  e.  g.,  skin  color,  it  is  usually  safe  to  assume  that  it  is  a 
germinal  character,  unless  there  is  some  evident  reason  for 
deciding  otherwise,  as  in  the  case  of  a  child  bom  with  some 
disease  from  which  the  mother  had  been  suffering  for  the  pre- 
vious few  months.  In  general,  it  is  more  difficult  to  decide 
whether  a  mental  trait  is  germinal,  than  whether  a  physical 
one  is;  and  great  care  should  be  used  in  classification. 

To  make  the  distinction,  one  ought  to  be  familiar  with  an 
individual  from  birth,  and  to  have  some  knowledge  of  the  con- 
dition? to  which  he  was  exposed,  in  the  period  between  concep- 
tion and  birth, — for  of  course  a  modification  which  takes  place 
during  that  time  is  as  truly  an  acquired  character  as  one  that 
takes  place  after  parturition.  Blindness,  for  example,  may  be 
an  inborn  defect.  The  child  from  conception  may  have  lacked 
the  requisites  for  the  development  of  sight.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  may  be  an  acquired  character,  due  to  an  ill-advised  display  of 
patriotism  on  July  4,  at  some  time  during  childhood;  or  even 
to  infection  at  the  moment  of  birth.  Similarly  small  size  may 
be  an  inborn  character,  due  to  a  small-sized  ancestry;  but  if 
the  child  comes  of  a  normal  ancestry  and  is  stunted  merely 
because  of  lack  of  proper  care  and  food,  the  smallness  is  an 
acquired  character.  Deafness  may  be  congenital  and  inborn, 
or  it  may  be  acquired  as  the  result,  say,  of  scarlet  fever  during 
childhood. 

Now  the  inborn  characters  (excepting  modifications  in  utero) 
are  admittedly  heritable,  for  inborn  characters  must  exist  poten- 
tially in  the  germ-plasm.  The  belief  that  acquired  characters 
are  also  inherited,  therefore,  involves  belief  that  in  some  way 
the  trait  acquired  by  the  parent  is  incorporated  in  the  germ- 
plasm  of  the  parent,  to  be  handed  on  to  the  child  and  reappear 
in  the  course  of  the  child's  development.  The  impress  on  the 
parental  body  must  in  some  way  be  transferred  to  the  parental 
germ-plasm;  and  not  as  a  general  influence,  but  as  a  specific 
one  which  can  be  reproduced  by  the  germ-plasm. 

This  idea  was  held  almost  without  question  by  the  biologists 
of  the  past,  from  Aristotle  on.  Questionings  indeed  arose  from 
time  to  time,  but  they  were  vague  and  carried  no  weight,  until 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  33 

a  generation  ago  several  able  men  elaborated  them.  For  many 
years,  it  was  the  question  of  chief  dispute  in  the  study  of  hered- 
ity. The  last  word  has  not  yet  been  said  on  it.  It  has  theoret- 
ical bearings  of  immense  importance ;  for  our  conception  of  the 
process  of  evolution  will  be  shaped  according  to  the  belief  that 
acquired  characters  are  or  are  not  inherited.  Herbert  Spencer 
went  so  far  as  to  say,  "  Close  contemplation  of  the  facts  im- 
presses me  more  strongly  than  ever  with  two  alternatives — either 
that  there  has  been  inheritance  of  acquired  characters,  or  there 
has  been  no  evolution."  But  its  practical  bearings  are  no  less 
momentous.  Again  to  quote  Spencer:  "Considering  the  width 
and  depth  of  the  eflFects  which  the  acceptance  or  non-acceptance 
of  one  or  the  other  of  these  hypotheses  must  have  on  our  views 
of  life,  the  question.  Which  of  them  is  true?  demands  beyond  all 
other  questions  whatever  the  attention  of  scientific  men.  A 
grave  responsibility  rests  on  biologists  in  respect  of  the  general 
question,  since  wrong  answers  lead,  among  other  effects,  to 
wrong  belief  about  social  affairs  and  to  disastrous  social 
actions." 

Biologists  certainly  have  not  shirked  this  "grave  responsi- 
bility "  during  the  last  30  years,  and  they  have,  in  our  opinion, 
satisfactorily  answered  the  general  question.  The  answer  they 
give  is  not  the  answer  Herbert  Spencer  gave. 

But  the  popular  mind  frequently  lags  a  generation  behind, 
in  its  grasp  of  the  work  of  science,  and  it  must  be  said  that  in 
this  case  the  popular  mind  is  still  largely  under  the  influence  of 
Herbert  Spencer  and  his  school.  Whether  they  know  it  or  not, 
most  people  who  have  not  made  a  particular  study  of  the  ques- 
tion still  tacitly  assume  that  the  acquirements  of  one  generation 
form  part  of  the  inborn  heritage  of  the  next,  and  the  present 
social  and  educational  systems  are  founded  in  large  part  on  this 
false  foimdation.  Most  philanthropy  starts  out  unquestioningly 
with  the  assumption  that  by  modifying  the  individual  for  the 
better,  it  will  thereby  improve  the  germinal  quality  of  the  race. 
Even  a  self-styled  eugenist  asks,  "  Can  prospective  parents  who 
have  thoroughly  and  systematically  disciplined  themselves, 
physically,  mentally  and  morally,  transmit  to  their  offspring 


34  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

the  traits  or  tendencies  which  they  have  developed?"  and 
answers  the  question  with  the  astounding  statement,  "It  seems 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  they  have  this  power,  it  being 
simply  a  phase  of  heredity,  the  tendency  of  like  to  beget  like." 

The  right  understanding  of  this  famous  problem  is  therefore 
fraught  with  the  most  important  consequences  to  eugenics. 
The  huge  mass  of  experimental  evidence  that  has  been  accumu- 
lated during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  has,  necessarily,  been 
almost  wholly  based  on  work  with  plants  and  lower  animals. 
Even  though  we  can  not  attempt  to  present  a  general  review  of 
this  evidence,  for  which  the  reader  must  consult  one  of  the 
standard  works  on  biology  or  genetics,  we  shall  point  out  some 
of  the  considerations  imderlying  the  problem  and  its  solution. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  definitely  understood  that  we 
are  dealing  only  with  specific,  as  distinguished  from  general, 
transmission.  As  the  germ-cells  derive  their  nourishment  from 
the  body,  it  is  obvious  that  any  cause  profoundly  affecting  the 
latter  might  in  that  way  exercise  an  influence  on  the  germ-cells; 
that  if  the  parent  was  starv^ed,  the  germ-cells  might  be  ill- 
nourished  and  the  resulting  offspring  might  be  weak  and  puny. 
There  is  experimental  evidence  that  this  is  the  case;  but  that 
is  not  the  inheritance  of  an  acquired  character.  If,  however, 
a  white  man  tanned  by  long  exposure  to  the  tropical  sun  should 
have  children  who  were  brunettes,  when  the  family  stock  was 
all  blond;  or  if  men  whose  legs  were  deformed  through  falls  in 
childhood  should  have  children  whose  legs,  at  birth,  appeared 
deformed  in  the  same  manner;  then  there  would  be  a  distinct 
case  of  the  transmission  of  an  acquired  characteristic.  "The 
precise  question,"  as  Professor  Thomson  words  it,  "is  this:  Can 
a  structvu"al  change  in  the  body,  induced  by  some  change  in  use 
or  disuse,  or  by  a  change  in  surrounding  influence,  affect  the 
germ-cells  in  such  a  specific  or  representative  way  that  the 
offspring  will  through  its  inheritance  exhibit,  even  in  a  shght 
degree,  the  modification  which  the  parent  acquired?  "  He  then 
lists  a  number  of  current  misunderstandings,  which  are  so  wide- 
spread that  they  deserve  to  be  considered  here. 

(i)  It  is  frequently  argued  (as  Herbert  Spencer  himself  sug- 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  35 

gested)  that  unless  modifications  are  inherited,  there  could  be 
no  such  thing  as  evolution.  Such  pessimism  is  unwarranted. 
There  is  abundant  explanation  of  evolution,  in  the  abundant 
supply  of  germinal  variations  which  every  individual  presents. 

(2)  It  is  common  to  advance  an  interpretation  of  some  obser- 
vation, in  support  of  the  Lamarckian  doctrine,  as  if  it  were  difact. 
Interpretations  are  not  facts.  What  is  wanted  are  the  facts; 
each  student  has  a  right  to  interpret  them  as  he  sees  fit,  but  not 
to  represent  his  interpretation  as  a  fact.  It  is  easy  to  find  struc- 
tural features  in  Nature  which  may  be  interpreted  as  resulting 
from  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters;  but  this  is  not  the 
same  as  to  say  and  to  prove  that  they  have  resulted  from  such 
inheritance. 

(3)  It  is  common  to  beg  the  question  by  pointing  to  the 
transmission  of  some  character  that  is  not  proved  to  be  a  modi- 
fication. Herbert  Spencer  cited  the  prevalence  of  short-sighted- 
ness among  the  "notoriously  studious"  Germans  as  a  defect 
due  to  the  inheritance  of  an  acquired  character.  But  he  offered 
no  evidence  that  this  is  an  acquirement  rather  than  a  germinal 
character.  As  a  fact,  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  weakness 
of  the  eyes  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  that  race,  and  existed 
long  before  the  Germans  ever  became  studious — even  at  a  time 
when  most  of  them  could  neither  read  nor  write. 

(4)  The  reappearance  of  a  modification  may  be  mistaken  for 
the  transmission  of  a  modification.  Thus  a  blond  European 
family  moves  to  the  tropics,  and  the  parents  become  tanned. 
The  children  who  grow  up  under  the  tropical  sun  are  tanned 
from  infancy;  and  after  the  grandchildren  or  great-grandchildren 
appear,  brown  from  childhood,  some  one  points  to  the  case  as 
an  instance  of  permanent  modification  of  skin-color.  But  of 
course  the  children  at  the  time  of  birth  are  as  white  as  their 
distant  cousins  in  Europe,  and  if  taken  back  to  the  North  to  be 
brought  up,  would  be  no  darker  than  their  kinsmen  who  had 
never  been  in  the  tropics.  Such  "evidence"  has  often  been 
brought  forward  by  careless  observers,  but  can  deceive  no  one 
who  inquires  carefully  into  the  facts. 

(5)  In  the  case  of  diseases,  re-infection  is  often  mistaken  for 


36  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

transmission.  The  father  had  pneumonia;  the  son  later  devel- 
oped it;  ergo,  he  must  have  inherited  it.  What  evidence  is  there 
that  the  son  in  this  case  did  not  get  it  from  an  entirely  different 
source?  Medical  literature  is  heavily  burdened  with  such 
spurious  evidence. 

(6)  Changes  in  the  germ-cells  along  with  changes  in  the  body 
are  not  relevant  to  this  discussion.  The  mother's  body,  for 
example,  is  poisoned  with  alcohol,  which  is  present  in  large 
quantities  in  the  blood  and  therefore  might  affect  the  germ-cells 
directly.  If  the  children  subsequently  born  are  consistently 
defective  it  is  not  an  inheritance  of  a  body  character  but  the 
result  of  a  direct  modification  of  the  germ-plasm.  The  inher- 
itance of  an  acquired  modification  of  the  body  can  only  be 
proved  if  some  particular  change  made  in  the  parent  is  inherited 
as  such  by  the  child. 

(7)  There  is  often  a  failure  to  distinguish  between  the  possible 
inheritance  of  a  particular  modification,  and  the  possible  in- 
heritance of  indirect  results  of  that  modification,  or  of  changes 
correlated  with  it.  This  is  a  nice  but  crucial  point  on  which 
most  popular  writers  are  confused.  Let  us  examine  it  through  a 
hypothetical  case.  A  woman,  not  herself  strong,  bears  a  child 
that  is  weak.  The  woman  then  goes  in  for  athletics,  in  order 
better  to  fit  herself  for  motherhood;  she  specializes  on  tennis. 
After  a  few  years  she  bears  another  child,  which  is  much  stronger 
and  better  developed  than  the  first.  "Look,"  some  one  will  say, 
"how  the  mother  has  transmitted  her  acquirement  to  her  off- 
spring." We  grant  that  her  improved  general  health  will 
probably  result  in  a  child  that  is  better  nourished  than  the  first; 
but  that  is  a  very  different  thing  from  heredity.  If,  however, 
the  mother  had  played  tennis  until  her  right  arm  was  over- 
developed, and  her  spine  bent;  if  these  characteristics  were 
nowhere  present  in  the  ancestry  and  not  seen  in  the  first  child; 
but  if  the  second  child  were  born  with  a  bent  spine  and  a  right 
arm  of  exaggerated  musculature,  we  would  be  willing  to  con- 
sider the  case  on  the  basis  of  the  inheritance  of  an  acquired 
character.  We  are  not  likely  to  have  such  a  case  presented  to 
us. 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  37 

To  put  the  matter  more  generally,  it  is  not  enough  to  show 
that  some  modification  in  the  parent  results  in  some  modification 
in  the  child.  For  the  purposes  of  this  argument  there  must  be 
a  similar  modification. 

(8)  Finally,  data  are  frequently  presented,  which  cover  only 
two  generations — ^parent  and  child.  Indeed,  almost  all  the  data 
alleged  to  show  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characteristics  are  of 
this  kind.  They  are  of  little  or  no  value  as  evidence.  Cases 
covering  a  number  of  generations,  where  a  cumidative  change 
was  visible,  would  be  of  weight,  but  on  the  rare  occasions  when 
they  are  forthcoming,  they  can  be  explained  in  some  other 
way  more  satisfactorily  than  by  an  appeal  to  the  theory  of  La- 
marck.' 

If  the  evidence  currently  offered  to  support  a  belief  in  the 
inheritance  of  acquired  characters  is  tested  by  the  application  of 
these  "misunderstandings,"  it  will  at  once  be  found  that  most  of 
it  disappears;  that  it  can  be  thrown  out  of  court  without  further 
formality.  The  Lamarckian  doctrine  is  now  held  mainly  by 
persons  who  have  either  lacked  training  in  the  evaluation  of 
evidence,  or  have  never  examined  critically  the  assumptions  on 
which  they  proceed.  Medical  men  and  breeders  of  plants  or 
animals  are  to  a  large  extent  believers  in  Lamarckism,  but  the 
evidence  (if  any)  on  which  they  rely  is  always  susceptible  of 
explanation  in  a  more  reasonable  way.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  some  of  the  ablest  intellects  in  the  world  have  been  as- 
sidously  engaged  in  getting  at  the  truth  in  the  case,  during  the 
last  half-century;  and  it  is  certainly  worthy  of  consideration 
that  not  in  a  single  case  has  the  transmission  of  an  acquired  body 

1  Jean  Baptiste  Lamarck,  a  French  naturalist,  born  in  1744,  was  one  of  the  pio- 
neers in  the  philosophical  study  of  evolution.  The  theory  (published  in  1809)  for 
which  he  is  best  known  is  as  follows:  "Changes  in  the  animal's  surroundings  are 
responded  to  by  changes  in  its  habits."  "Any  particular  habit  involves  the  regular 
use  of  some  organs  and  the  disuse  of  others.  Those  organs  which  are  used  will  be 
developed  and  strengthened,  those  not  used  diminished  and  weakened,  and  the 
changes  so  produced  will  be  transmitted  to  the  offspring,  and  thus  progressive  de- 
velopment of  particular  organs  will  go  on  from  generation  to  generation."  His 
classical  example  is  the  neck  of  the  giraffe,  which  he  supposes  to  be  long  because, 
for  generation  after  generation,  the  animals  stretched  their  necks  in  order  to  get 
the  highest  leaves  from  the  trees. 


38  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

character  ever  been  proved  beyond  dispute.  Those  who  still 
hold  a  belief  in  it  (and  it  is  fair  to  say  that  some  men  of  real 
ability  are  among  that  number)  too  often  do  so,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
because  it  is  necessary  for  the  support  of  some  theoretical  doc- 
trine which  they  have  formulated.  Certainly  there  are  few  men 
who  can  say  that  they  have  carefully  examined  the  evidence  in 
the  case,  and  accept  Lamarckism  because  the  evidence  forces 
them  to  do  so.  It  will  be  interesting  to  review  the  various  classes 
of  alleged  evidence,  though  we  can  cite  only  a  few  cases  from  the 
great  number  available  (most  of  them,  however,  deaUng  vpth 
plants  or  lower  animals). 

Nearly  all  the  evidence  adduced  can  be  put  in  one  of  these  four 
classes : 

(i)  Mutilations. 

(2)  Diseases. 

(3)  Results  of  use  or  disuse. 

(4)  Physico-chemical  effects  of  environment,.,^,^,-  -^      * 
The  case  in  regard  tOQjutilft-trdhs  is  particularly  clear  cut  and 

leaves  little  room  for  doubt.  The  noses  and  ears  of  oriental 
women  have  been  pierced  for  generations  without  number,  yet 
girls  are  still  born  with  these  parts  entire.  Circumcision  offers 
another  test  case.  The  evidence  of  laboratory,  experirnenis 
(amputation  of  tails)  shows  nojnhejitance.  _  It  "Ynay-^e  said 
without  hesitation"^l|a*»iTiutilations'are  not  heritable,  no  matter 
how  many  generations  undergo  them.  , 

(2)  The  transmissibility  of  acquired  diseases  is  a  question 
involved  in  more  of  a  haze  of  ignorance  and  loose  thinking.  It  is 
particularly  frequent  to  see  cases  of  uterine  infection  offered  as 
cases  of  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters.  To  use  the  word 
"heredity"  in  such  a  case  is  unjustified.  Uterine  infection  has 
no  bearing  whatever  on  the  question. 

Taking  an  historical  view,  it  seems  fairly  evident  that  if 
diseases  were  really  inherited,  the  race  would  have  been  extinct 
long  ago.  Of  course  there  are  constitutional  defects  or  ab- 
normalities that  are  in  the  germ-plasm  and  are  heritable:  such 
is  the  peculiar  inability  of  the  blood  to  coagulate,  which  marks 
"bleeders"    (sufferers   from   hemophilia,   a   highly   hereditary 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  39 

"disease).  And  in  many  cases  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  be- 
tween a  real  germinal  condition  of  this  sort,  and  an  acquired 
disease. 

The  inheritance  of  an  acquired  disease  is  not  only  incon- 
ceivable, in  the  light  of  what  is  known  about  the  germ-plasm, 
but  there  is  no  evidence  to  support  it.  While  there  is  most  de- 
cidedly such  a  thing  as  the  inheritance  of  a  tendency  to  or  lack  of 
resistance  to  a  disease,  it  is  not  the  result  of  incidence  of  the 
disease  on  the  parent.  It  is  possible  to  inherit  a  tendency  to 
headaches  or  to  chronic  alcoholism;  and  it  is  possible  to  inherit  a 
lack  of  resistance  to  common  diseases  such  as  malaria,  smallpox 
or  measles;  but  actually  to  inherit  a  zymotic  disease  as  an 
inherent  genetic  trait,  is  impossible, — is,  in  fact,  a  contradiction 
of  terms. 

(3)  When  we  come  to  the  effects  of  use  and  disuse,  we  reach  a 
much  debated  ground,  and  one  complicated  by  the  injection  of  a 
great  deal  of  biological  theorizing,  as  well  as  the  presence  of  the 
usual  large  amount  of  faulty  observation  and  inference. 

It  will  be  admitted  by  every  one  that  a  part  of  the  body  which 
is  much  used  tends  to  increase  in  size,  or  strength,  and  similarly 
that  a  part  which  is  not  used  tends  to  atrophy.  It  is  further 
found  that  such  changes  are  progressive  in  the  race,  in  many 
cases.  Man's  brain  has  steadily  increased  in  size,  as  he  used  it 
more  and  more;  on  the  other  hand,  his  canine  teeth  have  grown 
smaller.  Can  this  be  regarded  as  the  inheritance  of  a  long  con- 
tinued process  of  use  and  disuse?  Such  a  view  is  often  taken, 
but  the  Lamarckian  doctrine  seems  to  us  just  as  mystical  here 
as  anywhere  else,  and  no  more  necessary.  Progressive  changes 
can  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for  by  natural  selection;  retro- 
gressive changes  are  susceptible  of  explanation  along  similar 
lines.  When  an  organ  is  no  longer  necessary,  as  the  hind  legs  of  a 
wfiale,  for  instance,  natural  selection  no  longer  keeps  it  at  the 
point  of  perfection.  Variation,  however,  continues  to  occur  in  it. 
Since  >Vie  organ  is  now  useless,  natural  selection  will  no  longer 
restrain^  variation  in  such  an  organ,  and  degeneracy  will  nat- 
urally follow,  for  of  all  the  variations  that  occur  in  the  organ, 
those  tendir\gj^o  loss  are  more  numerous  than  those  tending  to 


40  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

addition.  If  the  embryonic  development  of  a  whale's  hind  leg 
be  compared  to  some  complicated  mechanical  process,  such  as  the 
manufacture  of  a  typewriter,  it  will  be  easier  to  realize  that  a 
trivial  variation  which  affected  one  of  the  first  stages  of  the 
process  would  alter  all  succeeding  stages  and  ruin  the  final  per- 
fection of  the  machine.  It  appears,  then,  that  progressive 
degeneration  of  an  organ  can  be  adequately  explained  by  varia- 
tion with  the  removal  of  natural  selection,  and  that  it  is  not 
necessary  or  desirable  to  appeal  to  any  Lamarckian  factor  of  an 
unexplainable  and  undemonstrable  nature. 

The  situation  remains  the  same,  when  purely  mental  proc- 
esses, such  as  instincts,  are  considered.  Habit  often  repeated 
becomes  instinctive,  it  is  said ;  and  then  the  instinct  thus  formed 
by  the  individual  is  passed  on  to  his  descendants  and  becomes 
in  the  end  a  racial  instinct.  Most  psychologists  have  now 
abandoned  this  view,  which  receives  no  support  from  investi- 
gation. Such  prevalence  as  it  still  retains  seems  to  be  largely 
due  to  a  confusion  of  thought  brought  about  by  the  use  of  the 
word  "instinctive"  in  two  different  senses, — first  literally  and 
then  figuratively. 

A  persistent  attempt  has  been  made  in  America  during  recent 
years,  by  C.  L.  Redfield,  a  Chicago  engineer,  to  rehabilitate  the 
theory  of  the  inheritance  of  the  effects  of  use  and  disuse.  He 
has  presented  it  in  a  way  that,  to  one  ignorant  of  biology,  ap- 
pears very  exact  and  plausible;  but  his  evidence  is  defective  and 
his  interpretation  of  his  evidence  fallacious.  Because  of  the 
widespread  publicity,  Mr.  Redfield's  work  has  received,  we  dis- 
cuss it  further  in  Appendix  B. 

Since  the  importance  of  hormones  (internal  secretions)  in 
the  body  became  known,  it  has  often  been  suggested  that  their 
action  may  furnish  the  clue  to  some  sort  of  an  inheritance  of 
modifications.  The  hormone  might  conceivably  modify  the 
germ-plasm  but  if  so,  it  would  more  likely  be  in  some  wholly 
different  way. 

In  general,  we  may  confidently  say  that  there  is  neither  theo- 
retical necessity  nor  adequal?e  experimental  proof  for  belief 
that  the  results  of  use  and  disuse  are  inherited. 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  41 

(4)  When  we  come  to  consider  whether  the  effects  of  the 
environment  are  inherited,  we  attack  a  stronghold  of  sociologists 
and  historians.  Herbert  Spencer  thought  one  of  the  strongest 
pieces  of  evidence  in  this  category  was  to  be  found  in  the  as- 
similation of  foreigners  in  the  United  States.  "The  descendants 
of  the  immigrant  Irish,"  he  pointed  out,  "lose  their  Celtic  aspect 
and  become  Americanised.  ...  To  say  that  'spontaneous 
variation,'  increased  by  natural  selection,  can  have  produced 
this  effect,  is  going  too  far."  Unfortunately  for  Mr.  Spencer, 
he  was  basing  his  conclusions  on  guesswork.  It  is  only  within 
the  last  few  months  that  the  first  trustworthy  evidence  on  the 
point  has  appeared,  in  the  careful  measurements  of  Hrdlicka 
who  has  demonstrated  that  Spencer  was  quite  wrong  in  his 
statement.  As  a  fact,  the  original  traits  persist  with  almost 
incredible  fidelity.    (Appendix  C.) 

In  191 1,  Franz  Boas  of  Columbia  University  published  meas- 
urements of  the  head  form  of  children  of  immigrants  ^  which 
purported  to  show  that  American  conditions  caused  in  some 
mysterious  manner  a  change  in  the  shape  of  the  head.  This 
conclusion  in  itself  would  have  been  striking  enough,  but  was 
made  more  startling  when  he  announced  that  the  change  worked 
both  ways:  "The  East  European  Hebrew,  who  has  a  very  round 
head,  becomes  more  long-headed;  the  south  Italian,  who  in  Italy 
has  an  exceedingly  long  head,  becomes  more  short-headed"; 
and  moreover  this  potent  influence  was  alleged  to  be  a  subtle  one 
"which  does  not  affect  the  young  child  born  abroad  and  grow- 
ing up  in  American  environment,  but  which  makes  itself  felt 
among  the  children  bom  in  America,  even  a  short  time  after 
the  arrival  of  the  parents  in  this  country."  Boas'  work  was 
naturally  pleasing  to  sociologists  who  believe  in  the  reality 
of  the  "melting-pot,"  and  has  obtained  widespread  acceptance 
in  popular  literature.  It  has  obtained  little  acceptance  among 
his  fellow-anthropologists,  some  of  whom  allege  that  it  is  un- 
sound because  of  the  faulty  methods  by  which  the  measure- 
ments were  made  and  the  incorrect  standards  used  for  com- 
parison. 

^  Boas,  F.,  Changes  in  Body  Form  of  Descendants  of  Immigrants,  191 1. 


42  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

The  many  instances  quoted  by  historians,  where  races  have 
changed  after  immigration,  are  to  be  explained  in  most  cases 
by  natural  selection  under  new  conditions,  or  by  interbreeding 
with  the  natives,  and  not  as  the  direct  result  of  climate.  Ells- 
worth Huntington,  the  most  recent  and  careful  student  of  the 
efifect  of  climate  on  man,^  finds  that  climate  has  a  great  deal  of 
influence  on  man's  energy,  but  as  far  as  inherited  traits  in  general 
are  concerned,  he  is  constantly  led  to  remark  how  little  heredity 
is  capable  of  being  changed. 

Most  members  of  the  white  race  have  little  toes  that  are 
partly  atrophied,  and  considerably  deformed.  In  many  cases 
one  of  the  joints  has  undergone  ankylosis — that  is,  the  bones 
have  coalesced.  It  is  confidently  alleged  that  this  is  due  to  the 
inheritance  of  the  effects  of  wearing  tight  shoes  through  many 
centuries.  When  it  is  found  that  the  prehistoric  Egyptians, 
who  knew  not  tight  shoes,  suffered  from  the  same  defect  in  a 
similar  degree,  one's  confidence  in  this  kind  of  evidence  is  much 
diminished. 

The  retrogression  of  the  little  toe  in  man  is  probably  to  be 
explained  like  the  degeneration  of  the  hind  leg  of  the  whale,  as 
a  result  of  the  excess  of  deteriorating  variations  which,  when 
not  eliminated  by  natural  selection,  lead  to  atrophy.  Since 
man  began  to  limit  the  use  of  his  feet  to  walking  on  the  ground, 
the  little  toe  has  had  much  less  value  to  him. 

The  feet  of  Chinese  women  offer  another  illustration  along 
this  line.  Although  they  have  been  tightly  bound  for  many 
generations,  no  deformity  is  apparent  in  the  feet  of  girl  babies. 

Breeders  are  generally  of  the  opinion  that  good  care  and  feed 
bestowed  on  their  stock  produce  results  in  succeeding  genera- 
tions. This  is  in  a  way  true,  but  it  is  due  merely  to  the  fact 
that  the  offspring  get  better  nourishment  and  therefore  a  better 
start  in  life.  The  changes  in  breeds,  the  increase  in  milk  yield, 
and  similar  facts,  often  explained  as  due  to  inheritance  of  ac- 
quired characters,  are  better  explained  as  the  results  of  selection, 
sometimes  conscious,  sometimes  quite  unconscious. 

1  Civilization  and  Climate.  By  Ellsworth  Huntington,  Yale  University  Press, 
1916. 


BOUND  FOOT  OF  A  CHINESE  WOMAN 
Fig.  s. — For  centuries  the  feet  of  upper  class  women,  and  many  lower  class  women, 
in  China  have  been  distorted  in  this  manner;  but  their  daughters  have  perfect  feet 
when  born. 


DEFECTIVE  LITTLE  TOE  OF  A  PREHISTORIC 
EGYPTIAN 
Fig.  6. — The  above  illustration  shows  the  foot  of  a  pre- 
historic Egyptian  who  is  estimated  to  have  lived  about 
8000  B.  C.  The  last  joint  of  the  little  toe  had  entirely  dis- 
appeared, and  careful  dissection  leaves  no  doubt  that  it 
was  a  germinal  abnormality,  such  as  is  occasionally  seen 
today,  and  not  the  result  of  disease.  It  is,  therefore,  evi- 
dent that  the  degeneration  of  man  's  little  toe  must  be 
ascribed  to  some  more  natural  cause  than  the  wearing  of 
shoes  for  many  generations.  Photograph  from  Dr.  Gorgy 
Sobhy,  School  of  Medicine,  Cairo. 


MODinCATIOX  OF  THE  GERM-PIAS3*  4J 


Tlbc  <|atstnB  of  i 
of  vafodnalian  or  actaal 
luulMiicuf  in  a  iwiIict  of 
|Ml4Mr     It  is  mat  jct  dear,  paiti^ 
agiccastoidhatHHHid^isL  BotdKxcisao; 
tkat  aa  inanBitf  to  aajrtiUbg  can  be  cRated  and 
tihra^^  the  gmiibam  to : 

b short,  no BBtter vkat rriilaice «r< 

tbat  iiili»<  ii jiiM  r  of  aa|HRd  ImHy  ifcim  jrw^  is 
Aat  need  be  icckoaed  wdA,  iii  afipfiod  cqgBMDL. 

Ok  tke  odKT  band,  tbcre  is  a  posAle  Bdmct  iaiarwK  of 
modKcatiaas^  vbick  maj  bai«  lol  InpartaBoe  m  mam.  fi 
Ac  MiEwahal  is  Badtted  it  a  oertaai  vaw;  ia  a  ai^dbcr  of 
guMutMS,  cva  liMimjh ' 
to  bis  dcscxfldu 
sUe  tibe  sonrival  of 

_  bxve  bcca 

JttiugiuL 

flaalf ,  it  sboaU  be  bone  m  aiBd  tbat  cira  2  plnf^cal ; 
BTalal  fbaiai  Ictiv 
ti  iw'iwiiliil,  yet  due  is  a  sort  of  i 
adeis  vbidk  bas  bean  of  ■naeasi 
oftbeiaocL  Hb is tbc so-oAed 
■Bcnt;  tbc  |ia<*iwg  oa  bam 
acbitfcuucais of  Ae nee;,  its; 
owSfOtion,  m  ^boA.  Itisdooiitfad 
Suaedbjr  ^^peikiqgof  tbb  i.iailMiiiWi  of  Iftc 
"hciulilj;'"  it  crttabily  teadb  to  carfusc  waaatf  people  vbo  are 
aot  iced  to  tMaiapg  ^  hinirjpcJ  tfws  Xiaibiif  fe  Ae  pw^ 
oabietam. 

Tbne  is  BBKb  to  be  said  ia  fsvor  of  EL  Bw 
— "^OvfiBtioa  in  gemesal  k  Ae  s«k  of  tkose 

toadvaacei 
■BtonAj 
fty  be  passed  oa  to  die  acadL   ilsfwastbe 
B  fjaw.i.iiw.u,  one  geaeiatna  **T^fr-  ob  tike 


44  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

V 

ders  of  its  predecessor.  It  might  simplify  the  task  of  eugenics 
if  the  same  could  be  said  of  biological  heredity.  But  it  can  not. 
Each  generation  must  "start  from  scratch." 

In  August  Weismann's  words,  the  development  of  a  function 
in  offspring  begins  at  the  point  where  it  began  in  his  parents, 
not  at  the  point  where  it  ended  in  them.  Biological  improve- 
ment of  the  race  (and  such  improvement  greatly  fosters  all 
other  kinds)  must  be  made  through  a  selective  birth-rate. 
There  is  no  short-cut  by  way  of  euthenics,  merely. 

We  must  now  consider  whether  there  is  any  direct  way  of 
impairing  good  heredity.  It  is  currently  believed  that  there 
are  certain  substances,  popularly  known  as  "racial  poisons," 
which  are  capable  of  affecting  the  germ-plasm  adversely  and 
permanently  in  spite  of  its  isolation  and  protection.  For  ex- 
ample, the  literature  of  alcoholism,  and  much  of  the  literature 
of  eugenics,  abounds  with  statements  to  the  effect  that  alcohol 
Originates  degeneracy  in  the  human  race. 

The  proof  or  disproof  of  this  proposition  must  depend  in  the 
last  analysis  on  direct  observation  and  carefully  controlled  ex- 
periments. As  the  latter  cannot  be  made  feasibly  on  man,  a 
number  of  students  have  taken  up  the  problem  by  using  small 
animals  which  are  easily  handled  in  laboratories.  Many  of  these 
experiments  are  so  imperfect  in  method  that,  when  carefully 
examined,  they  are  found  to  possess  little  or  no  value  as  evi- 
dence on  the  point  here  discussed. 

Hodge,  Mairet  and  Combemale,  for  example,  have  published 
data  which  convinced  them  that  the  germ-plasm  of  dogs  was 
injured  by  the  administration  of  alcohol.  The  test  was  the 
quality  of  offspring  directly  produced  by  the  intoxicated  animals 
under  experiment.  But  the  number  of  dogs  used  was  too  small 
to  be  conclusive,  and  there  was  no  "control":  hence  these  ex- 
periments carry  little  weight. 

Ovize,  Fere  and  Stockard  have  shown  that  the  effect  of  al- 
cohol on  hen's  eggs  is  to  produce  malformed  embryos.  This, 
however,  is  a  case  of  influencing  the  development  of  the  in- 
dividual, rather  than  the  germ-plasm.  Evidence  is  abundant 
that  individual  development  can  be  harmed  by  alcohol,  but 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  45 

the  experiments  with  eggs  are  not  to  the  point  of  our  present 
purpose. 

Carlo  Todde  and  others  have  carried  out  similar  experiments 
on  cocks.  The  conclusions  have  in  general  been  in  favor  of  in- 
jury to  the  germ-plasm,  but  the  experiments  were  inadequate 
in  extent. 

Lditinen  experimented  on  rabbits  and  guinea  pigs,  but  he 
used  small  doses  and  secured  only  negative  results. 

Several  series  of  experiments  with  rats  indicate  that  if  the 
dosage  is  large  enough,  the  offspring  can  be  affected. 

Nice,  using  very  small  numbers  of  white  mice,  subjected  them 
not  only  to  alcohol,  but  to  caffein,  nicotin,  and  tobacco  smoke. 
The  fecundity  of  all  these  sets  of  mice  was  higher  than  that  of  the 
untreated  ones  used  as  control;  all  of  them  gained  in  weight; 
of  707  young,  none  was  deformed,  none  stillborn,  and  there  was 
only  one  abortion.  The  young  of  the  alcoholized  mice  surpassed 
all  others  in  growth.  The  dosage  Nice  employed  was  too  small, 
however,  to  give  his  experiment  great  weight. 

At  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  Leon  J.  Cole  has  been  treat- 
ing male  rabbits  with  alcohol  and  reports  that  "what  appear  to 
be  decisive  results  have  already  been  obtained.  In  the  case  of 
alcoholic  poisoning  of  the  male  the  most  marked  result  has  been 
a  lessening  of  his  efficiency  as  a  sire,  the  alcohol  apparently 
having  had  some  effect  on  the  vitality  of  his  spermatozoa." 
His  experiment  is  properly  planned  and  carried  out,  but  so  far 
as  results  have  been  made  public,  they  do  not  appear  to  afford 
conclusive  evidence  that  alcohol  originates  degeneracy  in  off- 
spring. 

The  long-continued  and  carefully  conducted  experiment  of 
Charles  R.  Stockard  at  the  Cornell  Medical  College  is  most 
widely  quoted  in  this  connection.  He  works  with  guinea-pigs. 
The  animals  are  intoxicated  daily,  six  days  in  the  week,  by  in- 
haling the  fumes  of  alcohol  to  the  point  where  they  show  evi- 
dent signs  of  its  influence;  their  condition  may  thus  be  compared 
to  that  of  the  toper  who  never  gets  "dead  drunk"  but  is  never 
entirely  sober.  Treatment  of  this  sort  for  a  period  as  long  as 
three  years  produces  no  apparent  bad  effect  on  the  individuals; 


46  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

they  continue  to  grow  and  become  fat  and  vigorous,  taking 
plenty  of  food  and  behaving  in  a  normal  manner  in  every  par- 
ticular. Some  of  them  have  been  killed  from  time  to  time,  and 
all  the  tissues,  including  the  reproductive  glands,  have  been 
found  perfectly  normal.  "The  treated  animals  are,  therefore, 
little  changed  or  injured  so  far  as  their  behavior  and  structure 
goes.  Nevertheless,  the  effects  of  the  treatment  are  most  de- 
cidedly indicated  by  the  type  of  offspring  to  which  they  give 
rise,  whether  they  are  mated  together  or  with  normal  individ- 
uals." 

Before  the  treatment  is  begun,  every  individual  is  mated 
at  least  once,  to  demonstrate  its  possibility  of  giving  rise  to 
sound  offspring.  The  crucial  test  of  the  influence  of  alcohol  on 
the  germ-cells  is,  of  course,  the  mating  of  a  previously  alco- 
holized male  with  a  normal,  untreated  female,  in  a  normal  en- 
vironment. 

When  the  experiment  was  last  reported,^  it  had  covered  five 
years  and  four  generations.  The  records  of  682  offspring  pro- 
duced by  571  matings  were  tabulated,  164  matings  of  alcohol- 
ized animals,  in  which  either  the  father,  mother,  or  both  were 
alcoholic,  gave  64,  or  almost  40%,  negative  results  or  early 
abortions,  while  only  25%  of  the  control  matings  failed  to  give 
full-term  litters.  Of  the  100  full-term  litters  from  alcoholic 
parents  18%  contained  stillborn  young  and  only  50%  of  all  the 
matings  resulted  in  living  litters,  while  47%  of  the  individuals 
in  the  litters  of  living  young  died  soon  after  birth.  In  contrast 
to  this  record  73%  of  the  90  control  matings  gave  living  litters 
and  84%  of  the  young  in  these  litters  survived  as  normal, 
healthy  animals. 

"The  mating  records  of  the  descendants  of  the  alcoholized 
guinea  pigs,  although  they  themselves  were  not  treated  with 
alcohol,  compare  in  some  respects  even  more  unfavorably  with 
the  control  records  than  do  the  above  data  from  the  directly 
alcoholized  animals."  The  records  of  the  matings  in  the  second 
filial  generation  "are  still  worse,  higher  mortality  and  more 
pronounced  deformities,  while  the  few  individuals  which  have 

'  American  Naluralist,  L.,  pp.  65-89,  144-178,  Feb.  and  Mar.,  1916. 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  47 

survived  are  generally  weak  and  in  many  instances  appear  to 
be  quite  sterile  even  though  paired  with  vigorous,  prolific, 
normal  mates." 

We  do  not  minimize  the  value  of  this  experiment,  when  we 
say  that  too  much  weight  has  been  popularly  placed  on  its  re- 
sults. Compare  it  with  the  experiment  with  fowls  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Maine,  which  Raymond  Pearl  reports.^  He  treated 
19  fowls  with  alcohol,  little  effect  on  the  general  health  being 
shown,  and  none  on  egg  production.  From  their  eggs  234  chicks 
were  produced;  the  average  percentage  of  fertility  of  the  eggs 
was  diminished  but  the  average  percentage  of  hatchability  of 
fertile  eggs  was  increased.  The  infant  mortality  of  these  chicks 
was  smaller  than  normal,  the  chicks  were  heavier  when  hatched 
and  grew  more  rapidly  than  normal  afterwards.  No  deformities 
were  found.  "Out  of  12  different  characters  for  which  we  have 
exact  quantitative  data,  the  offspring  of  treated  parents  taken 
as  a  group  are  superior  to  the  offspring  of  untreated  parents  in 
8  characters,"  in  two  characters  they  are  inferior  and  in  the  re- 
maining two  there  is  no  discernible  difference.  At  this  stage 
Dr.  Pearl's  experiment  is  admittedly  too  small,  but  he  is  con- 
tinuing it.  As  far  as  reported,  it  confirms  the  work  of  Professor 
Nice,  above  mentioned,  and  shows  that  what  is  true  for  guinea 
pigs  may  not  be  true  for  other  animals,  and  that  the  amount  of 
dosage  probably  also  makes  a  difference.  Dr.  Pearl  explains 
his  results  by  the  hypothesis  that  the  alcohol  eliminated  the 
weaker  germs  in  the  parents,  and  allowed  only  the  stronger 
germs  to  be  used  for  reproduction. 

Despite  the  unsatisfactory  nature  of  much  of  the  alleged  evi- 
dence, we  must  conclude  that  alcohol,  when  given  in  large  enough 
doses,  may  sometimes  affect  the  germ-plasm  of  some  lower  ani- 
mals in  such  a  way  as  to  deteriorate  the  quality  of  their  off- 
spring. This  effect  is  probably  an  "induction,"  which  does  not 
produce  a  permanent  change  in  the  bases  of  heredity,  but  will 
wear  away  in  a  generation  or  two  of  good  surroundings.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  although  the  second-generation 
treated  males  of  Dr.  Stockard's  experiment  produced  defective 
i  Proc.  Am.  Philos.  Soc.  LV,  pp.  243-259,  1916. 


48  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

offspring  when  mated  with  females  from  similarly  treated  stock, 
they  produced  normal  offspring  when  mated  with  normal  fe- 
males. The  significance  of  this  fact  has  been  too  little  empha- 
sized in  writings  on  "racial  poisons."  If  a  normal  mate  will 
counteract  the  influence  of  a  "poisoned"  one,  it  is  obvious  that 
the  probabilities  of  danger  to  any  race  from  this  source  are  much 
decreased,  while  if  only  a  small  part  of  the  race  is  affected,  and 
mates  at  random,  the  racial  damage  might  be  so  small  that  it 
could  hardly  be  detected. 

There  are  several  possible  explanations  of  the  fact  that  injury 
is  found  in  some  experiments  but  not  in  others.  It  may  be,  as 
Dr.  Pearl  thinks,  that  only  weak  germs  are  killed  by  moderate 
treatment,  and  the  strong  ones  are  uninjured.  And  it  is  prob- 
able (this  applies  more  particularly  to  man)  that  the  body  can 
take  care  of  a  certain  amount  of  alcohol  without  receiving  any 
injury  therefrom;  it  is  only  when  the  dosage  passes  the  "danger 
point"  that  the  possibility  of  injury  appears.  As  to  the  loca- 
tion of  this  limit,  which  varies  with  the  species,  little  is  known. 
Much  more  work  is  needed  before  the  problem  will  be  fully 
cleared  up. 

Alcohol  has  been  in  use  in  parts  of  the  world  for  many  cen- 
turies; it  was  common  in  the  Orient  before  the  beginning  of 
historical  knowledge.  Now  if  its  use  by  man  impairs  the  germ- 
plasm,  then  it  seems  obvious  that  the  child  of  one  who  uses 
alcohol  to  a  degree  sufficient  to  impair  his  germ-plasm  will  tend 
to  be  bom  inferior  to  his  parent.  If  that  child  himself  is  al- 
coholic, his  own  offspring  will  suffer  still  more,  since  they  must 
carry  the  burden  of  two  generations  of  impairment.  Continu- 
ing this  line  of  reasoning  over  a  number  of  generations,  in  a 
race  where  alcohol  is  freely  used  by  most  of  the  population,  one 
seems  unable  to  escape  from  the  conclusion  that  the  effects 
of  this  racial  poison,  if  it  be  such,  must  necessarily  be  cumula- 
tive. The  damage  done  to  the  race  must  increase  in  each  genera- 
tion. If  the  deterioration  of  the  race  could  be  measured,  it 
might  even  be  found  to  grow  in  a  series  of  figures  representing 
arithmetical  progression. 

It  seems  impossible,  with  such  a  state  of  affairs,  that  a  race  in 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  49 

which  alcohol  was  widely  used  for  a  long  period  of  time,  could 
avoid  extinction.  At  any  rate,  the  races  which  have  used  alco- 
hol longest  ought  to  show  great  degeneracy^unless  there  be 
some  regenerative  process  at  work  constantly  counteracting 
this  cumulative  effect  of  the  racial  poison  in  impairing  the 
germ-plasm. 

Such  a  proposition  at  once  demands  an  appeal  to  history. 
What  is  found  in  examination  of  the  races  that  have  used  alco- 
hol the  longest?  Have  they  undergone  a  progressive  physical 
degeneracy,  as  should  be  expected? 

By  no  means.  In  this  particular  respect  they  seem  to  have 
become  stronger  rather  than  weaker,  as  time  went  on;  that  is, 
they  have  been  less  and  less  injured  by  alcohol  in  each  century, 
as  far  as  can  be  told.  Examination  of  the  history  of  nations 
which  are  now  comparatively  sober,  although  having  access  to 
unlimited  quantities  of  alcohol,  shows  that  at  an  earlier  period  in 
their  history,  they  were  notoriously  drunken;  and  the  sobriety 
of  a  race  seems  to  be  proportioned  to  the  length  of  time  in  which 
it  has  had  experience  of  alcohol.  The  Mediterranean  peoples, 
who  have  had  abundance  of  it  from  the  earliest  period  recorded, 
are  now  relatively  temperate.  One  rarely  sees  a  drunkard 
among  them,  although  many  individuals  in  them  would  never 
think  of  drinking  water  or  any  other  non-alcohohc  beverage. 
In  the  northern  nations,  where  the  experience  of  alcohol  has  been 
less  prolonged,  there  is  still  a  good  deal  of  drunkenness,  although 
not  so  much  as  formerly.  But  among  nations  to  whom  strong 
alcohol  has  only  recently  been  made  available — the  American 
Indian,  for  instance,  or  the  Eskimo — drunkenness  is  frequent 
wherever  the  protecting  arm  of  government  does  not  interfere. 

What  bearing  does  this  have  on  the  theory  of  racial  poisons? 

Surely  a  consideration  of  the  principle  of  natural  selection 
will  make  it  clear  that  alcohol  is  acting  as  an  instrument  of 
racial  purification  through  the  elimination  of  weak  stocks.  It 
is  a  drastic  sort  of  purification,  which  one  can  hardly  view  with 
complacency;  but  the  effect,  nevertheless,  seems  clear  cut. 

To  demonstrate  the  action  of  natural  selection,  we  must  first 
demonstrate  the  existence  of  variations  on  which  it  can  act. 


50  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

This  is  not  difficult  in  the  character  under  consideration — 
namely,  the  greater  or  less  capacity  of  individuals  to  be  at- 
tracted by  alcohol,  to  an  injurious  degree. 

As  G.  Archdall  Reid  has  pointed  out,^  men  drink  for  at  least 
three  different  reasons:  (i)  to  satisfy  thirst.  This  leads  to  the 
use  of  a  light  wine  or  a  malt  hquor.  (2)  To  gratify  the  palate. 
This  again  usually  results  in  the  use  of  drinks  of  low  alcohol 
content,  in  which  the  flavor  is  the  main  consideration.  (3) 
Finally,  men  drink  "to  induce  those  peculiar  feelings,  those  pe- 
culiar frames  of  mind"  caused  by  alcohol. 

Although  the  three  motives  may  and  often  do  coexist  in  the 
same  individual,  or  may  animate  him  at  different  periods  of 
life,  the  fact  remains  that  they  are  quite  distinct.  Thirst  and 
taste  do  not  lead  to  excessive  drinking;  and  there  is  good  evidence 
that  the  degree  of  concentration  and  the  dosage  are  important 
factors  in  the  amount  of  harm  alcohol  may  do  to  the  individual. 
The  concern  of  evolutionists,  therefore,  is  with  the  man  who  is  so 
constituted  that  the  mental  effects  of  alcohol  acting  directly 
on  the  brain  are  pleasing,  and  we  must  show  that  there  is  a 
congenital  variability  in  this  mental  quality,  among  individuals. 

Surely  an  appeal  to  personal  experience  will  leave  little  room 
for  doubt  on  that  point.  The  alcohol  question  is  so  hedged  about 
with  moral  and  ethical  issues  that  those  who  never  get  drunk, 
or  who  perhaps  never  even  "take  a  drink,"  are  likely  to  ascribe 
that  line  of  conduct  to  superior  intelligence  and  great  self- 
control.  As  a  fact,  a  dispassionate  analysis  of  the  case  will 
show  that  why  many  such  do  not  use  alcoholic  beverages  to 
excess  is  because  intoxication  has  no  charm  for  them.  He  is  so 
constituted  that  the  action  of  alcohol  on  the  brain  is  distasteful 
rather  than  pleasing  to  him.  In  other  cases  it  is  variation  in 
controlling  satisfaction  of  immediate  pleasures  for  later  greater 
good. 

Some  of  the  real  inebriates  have  a  strong  will  and  a  real  desire 

^  Dr.  Reid  is  the  author  who  has  most  efifectively  called  attention  to  this  relation 
between  alcohol  and  natural  selection.  Those  interested  will  find  a  full  treatment  in 
his  books.  The  Present  Evolution  of  Man,  The  Laws  of  Heredity,  and  The  Principles  ot 
Heredity. 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  51 

to  be  sober,  but  have  a  different  mental  make-up,  vividly  de- 
scribed by  William  James:  ^  "The  craving  for  drink  in  real 
dipsomaniacs,  or  for  opium  and  chloral  in  those  subjugated,  is  of 
a  strength  of  which  normal  persons  can  have  no  conception. 
'Were  a  keg  of  rum  in  one  corner  of  the  room,  and  were  a 
cannon  constantly  discharging  balls  between  me  and  it,  I  could 
not  refrain  from  passing  before  that  cannon  in  order  to  get  that 
rum.  If  a  bottle  of  brandy  stood  on  one  hand,  and  the  pit  of 
hell  yawned  on  the  other,  and  I  were  convinced  I  should  be 
pushed  in  as  surely  as  I  took  one  glass,  I  could  not  refrain.'  Such 
statements  abound  in  dipsomaniacs'  mouths."  Between  this 
extreme,  and  the  other  of  the  man  who  is  sickened  by  a  single 
glass  of  beer,  there  are  all  intermediates. 

Now,  given  an  abundant  and  accessible  supply  of  alcohol  to  a 
race,  what  happens?  Those  who  are  not  tempted  or  have 
adequate  control,  do  not  drink  to  excess;  those  who  are  so  con- 
stituted as  to  crave  the  effects  of  alcohol  (once  they  have  expe- 
rienced them),  and  who  lack  the  ability  to  deny  themselves  the 
inunediate  pleasure  for  the  sake  of  a  future  gain,  seek  to  renew 
these  pleasures  of  intoxication  at  every  opportunity;  and  the 
well  attested  result  is  that  they  are  likely  to  drink  themselves 
to  a  premature  death. 

Although  it  is  a  fact  that  the  birth-rate  in  drunkard's  families 
may  be  and  often  is  larger  than  that  of  the  general  population,^ 
it  is  none  the  less  a  fact  that  many  of  the  worst  drunkards  leave 
no  or  few,  offspring.  They  die  of  their  own  excesses  at  an  early 
age;  or  their  conduct  makes  them  unattractive  as  mates;  or  they 
give  so  little  care  to  their  children  that  the  latter  die  from  neg- 
lect, exposure  or  accident.  As  these  drunkards  would  tend  to 
hand  down  their  own  inborn  peculiarity,  or  weakness  for  alcohol, 
to  their  children,  it  must  be  obvious  that  their  death  results  in  a 
smaller  proportion  of  such  persons  in  the  next  generation.  In 
other  words,  natural  selection  is  at  work  again  here,  with 

^Principles  of  Psychology,  ii,  p.  543. 

*  Leon  J.  Cole  points  out  that  this  may  be  due  in  considerable  part  to  less  volun- 
tary restriction  of  offspring  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  often  under  the  influence 
of  alcohol. 


52  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

alcohol  as  its  agent.  By  killing  off  the  worst  drunkards  in  each 
generation,  nature  provides  that  tlie  following  generation  shall 
contain  fewer  people  who  lack  the  power  to  resist  the  attraction 
of  the  effect  of  alcohol,  or  who  have  a  tendency  to  use  it  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  injure  their  minds  and  bodies.  And  it  must  be 
obvious  that  the  speed  and  eflficacy  of  this  ruthless  temperance 
reform  movement  are  proportionate  to  the  abundance  and 
accessibility  of  the  supply  of  alcohol.  Where  the  supply  is 
ample  and  available,  there  is  certain  to  be  a  relatively  high 
death-rate  among  those  who  find  it  too  attractive,  and  the 
average  of  the  race  therefore  is  certain  to  become  stronger  in 
this  respect  with  each  generation.  Such  a  conclusion  can  be 
abimdantly  justified  by  an  appeal  to  the  history  of  the  Teu- 
tonic nations,  the  nations  around  the  Mediterranean,  the  Jews, 
or  any  race  which  has  been  submitted  to  the  test. 

There  seems  hardly  room  for  dispute  on  the  reality  of  this 
phase  of  natural  selection.  But  there  is  another  way  in  which 
the  process  of  strengthening  the  race  against  the  attraction  and- 
effect  of  alcohol  may  be  going  on  at  the  same  time.  If  the  drug 
does  actually  injure  the  germ-plasm,  and  set  up  a  deterioriation, 
it  is  obvious  that  natural  selection  is  given  another  point  at 
which  to  work.  The  more  deteriorated  would  be  eliminated  in 
each  generation  in  competition  with  the  less  deteriorated  or 
normal;  and  the  process  of  racial  purification  would  then  go  on 
the  more  rapidly.  The  fact  that  races  long  submitted  to  the 
action  of  alcohol  have  become  relatively  resistant  to  it,  there- 
fore, does  not  in  itself  answer  the  question  of  whether  alcohol 
injures  the  human  germ-plasm. 

The  possible  racial  effect  of  alcoholization  is,  in  short,  a  much 
more  complicated  problem  than  it  appears  at  first  sight  to  be. 
It  involves  the  action  of  natural  selection  in  several  important 
ways,  and  this  action  might  easily  mask  the  direct  action  of 
alcohol  on  the  germ-plasm,  if  there  be  any  measurable  direct 
result. 

No  longer  content  with  a  long  perspective  historical  view,  we 
will  scrutinize  the  direct  investigations  of  the  problem  which 
have  been  made  during  recent  years.    These  investigations  have 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  53 

in  many  cases  been  widely  advertised  to  the  public,  and  their 
conclusions  have  been  so  much  repeated  that  they  are  often 
taken  at  their  face  value,  without  critical  examination. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  solution  of  the  problem 
depends  on  finding  evidence  of  degeneracy  or  impairment  in 
the  offspring  of  persons  who  have  used  alcohol,  and  that  this 
relation  might  be  explainable  in  one  or  more  of  three  ways: 

(i)  It  may  be  that  alcohohsm  is  merely  a  symptom  of  a 
degenerate  stock.  In  this  case  the  children  will  be  defective, 
not  because  their  parents  drank,  but  because  their  parents  were 
defective — the  parents'  drinking  being  merely  one  of  the  symp- 
toms of  their  defect. 

(2)  It  may  be  that  alcohol  directly  poisons  the  germ-plasm, 
in  such  a  way  that  parents  of  sound  stock,  who  drink  alcohohc 
beverages,  will  have  defective  offspring. 

(3)  It  may  be  that  the  degeneracy  observed  in  the  children  of 
drunkards  (for  of  course  no  one  will  deny  that  children  of  drunk- 
ards are  frequently  defective)  is  due  solely  to  social  and  economic 
causes,  or  other  causes  in  the  environment:  that  the  drunken 
parents,  for  instance,  do  not  take  adequate  care  of  their  children, 
and  that  this  lack  of  care  leads  to  the  defects  of  the  children. 

The  latter  influence  is  doubtless  one  that  is  nearly  always  at 
work,  but  it  is  wholly  outside  the  scope  of  the  present  inquiry, 
and  we  shall  therefore  ignore  it,  save  as  it  may  appear  inciden- 
tally. Nor  does  it  require  emphasis  here;  for  the  disastrous 
social  and  economic  effects  of  alcoholism  are  patent  to  every 
observer.  We  find  it  most  convenient  to  concentrate  our  atten- 
tion first  on  the  second  of  the  questions  above  enumerated:  to 
ask  whether  there  is  any  good  evidence  that  the  use  of  alcoholic 
beverages  by  men  and  women  really  does  originate  degeneracy 
in  their  offspring. 

To  get  such  evidence,  one  must  seek  an  instance  that  will  be 
crucial,  one  that  will  leave  no  room  for  other  interpretations. 
One  must,  therefore,  exclude  consideration  of  cases  where  a 
mother  drank  before  child  birth.  It  is  well-known  that  alcohol 
can  pass  through  the  placenta,  and  that  if  a  prospective  mother 
drinks,  the  percentage  of  alcohol  in  the  circulation  of  the  unborn 


54  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

child  will  very  soon  be  nearly  equal  to  that  in  her  own  circula- 
tion. It  is  well  established  that  such  a  condition  is  extremely 
injurious  to  the  child;  but  it  has  nothing  directly  to  do  with 
heredity.  Therefore  we  can  not  accept  evidence  of  the  supposed 
effect  of  alcohol  on  the  fertilized  egg-cell,  at  any  stage  in  its 
development,  because  that  is  an  effect  on  the  individual,  not  on 
posterity.  And  the  only  means  by  which  we  can  wholly  avoid 
this  fallacy  is  to  give  up  altogether  an  attempt  to  prove  our  case 
by  citing  instances  in  which  the  mother  was  alcoholic.  If  this 
is  not  done,  there  will  always  be  liability  of  mistaking  an  effect 
of  pre-natal  nutrition  for  a  direct  injury  to  the  germ-plasm. 

But  if  we  can  find  cases  where  the  mother  was  of  perfectly 
sound  stock,  and  non-alcoholic;  where  the  father  was  of  sound 
stock,  but  alcohoUc;  and  where  the  offspring  were  impaired  in 
ways  that  can  be  plausibly  attributed  to  an  earlier  injury  to 
the  germ-plasm  by  the  father's  alcohol;  then  we  have  evidence 
that  must  weigh  heavily  with  the  fair-minded. 

An  interesting  case  is  the  well-known  one  recorded  by 
Schweighofer,  which  is  summarized  as  follows:  "A  normal 
woman  married  a  normal  man  and  had  three  sound  children. 
The  husband  died  and  the  woman  married  a  drunkard  and  gave 
birth  to  three  other  children;  one  of  these  became  a  drunkard; 
one  had  infantilism,  while  the  third  was  a  social  degenerate  and  a 
drunkard.  The  first  two  of  these  children  contracted  tuber- 
culosis, which  had  never  before  been  in  the  family.  The  woman 
married  a  third  time  and  by  this  sober  husband  again  produced 
sound  children." 

Although  such  evidence  is  at  first  sight  pertinent,  it  lacks  much 
of  being  convincing.  Much  must  be  known  about  the  ancestry 
of  the  drunken  husband,  and  of  the  woman  herself,  before  it 
can  be  certain  that  the  defective  children  owe  their  defect  to 
alcoholism  rather  than  to  heredity. 

We  can  not  undertake  to  review  all  the  literature  of  this  sub- 
ject, for  it  fills  volumes,  but  we  shall  refer  to  a  few  of  the  studies 
which  are  commonly  cited,  by  the  believers  in  the  racial-poison 
character  of  alcohol,  as  being  the  most  weighty. 

Taav  Laitinen  of  Helsingfors  secured  information  from  the 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  55 

parents  of  2,125  babies,  who  agreed  to  weigh  their  infants  once 
a  month  for  the  first  eight  months  after  birth,  and  who  also 
furnished  information  about  their  own  drinking  habits.  His 
conclusion  is  that  the  average  weight  of  the  abstainer's  child 
is  greater  at  birth,  that  these  children  develop  more  rapidly 
during  the  first  eight  months  than  do  the  children  of  the  moder- 
ate drinker,  and  that  the  latter  exceed  in  the  same  way  the 
children  of  the  heavier  drinker.  But  a  careful  analysis  of  his 
work  by  Karl  Pearson,  whose  great  ability  in  handling  statistics 
has  thrown  Hght  on  many  dark  places  in  the  alcohol  problem, 
shows  ^  that  Professor  Laitinen's  statistical  methods  were  so 
faulty  that  no  weight  can  be  attached  to  his  conclusions.  Fur- 
thermore, he  appears  to  have  mLxed  various  social  classes  and 
races  together  without  distinction;  and  he  has  made  no  distinc- 
tion between  parents,  one  of  whom  drank,  and  parents,  both 
of  whom  drank.  Yet,  this  distinction,  as  we  have  pointed  out, 
is  a  critical  one  for  such  inquiries.  Professor  Laitinen's  paper, 
according  to  one  believer  in  racial  poisons,  "surpasses  in  magni- 
tude and  precision  all  the  many  studies  of  this  subject  which 
have  proved  the  relation  between  drink  and  degeneracy."  As 
a  fact,  it  proves  nothing  of  the  sort  as  to  race  degeneracy. 

Again,  T.  A.  MacNicholl  reported  on  55,000  American  school 
children,  from  20,147  of  whom  he  secured  information  about 
the  parents'  attitude  to  alcoholic  drinks.  He  found  an  extraor- 
dinarily large  proportion  (58%)  of  deficient  and  backward  chil- 
dren in  the  group.  But  the  mere  bulk  of  his  work,  probably, 
has  given  it  far  more  prestige  than  it  deserves;  for  his  methods 
are  careless,  his  classifications  vague,  his  information  inade- 
quate; he  seems  to  have  dealt  with  a  degenerate  section  of  the 
population,  which  does  not  offer  suitable  material  for  testing 
the  question  at  issue;  and  he  states  that  many  of  the  children 

^  For  a  review  of  the  statistical  problems  involved,  see  Karl  Pearson.  An  at- 
tempt to  correct  some  of  the  misstatements  made  by  Sir  Victor  Horsley,  F.  R.  S., 
F.^.  C.  S.,  and  Mary  D.  Sturge,  M.  D.,  in  their  criticisms  of  the  Galton  Laboratory 
Memoir:  First  Study  of  the  Influence  of  Parental  Alcholism,  etc.;  and  Professor  Pear- 
son's various  popular  lectures,  also  A  Second  Study  of  the  Influence  of  Parental  Al- 
coholism on  the  Physique  and  Intelligence  of  Of  spring.  By  Karl  Pearson  and  Ethel  M. 
Elderton.    Eugenics  Laboratory  Memoir  Series  XIII. 


S6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

drank  and  smoked, — hence,  any  defects  found  in  them  may  be 
due  to  their  own  intemperance,  rather  than  that  of  their  parents. 
In  short,  Dr.  MacNicholl's  data  offer  no  help  in  an  attempt  to 
decide  whether  alcohoHsm  is  an  inheritable  effect. 

Another  supposed  piece  of  evidence  which  has  deceived  a 
great  many  students  is  the  investigation  of  Bezzola  into  the 
distribution  of  the  birth-rate  of  imbeciles  in  Switzerland.  He 
announced  that  in  wine-growing  districts  the  number  of  idiots 
conceived  at  the  time  of  the  vintage  and  carnival  is  very  large, 
while  at  other  periods  it  is  almost  nil.  The  conclusion  was  that 
excesses  of  drunkenness  occurring  in  connection  with  the  vintage 
and  carnival  caused  this  production  of  imbeciles.  But  aside 
from  the  unjustified  assumptions  involved  in  his  reasoning, 
Professor  Pearson  has  recently  gone  over  the  data  and  shown 
the  faulty  statistical  method;  that,  in  fact,  the  number  of  im- 
beciles conceived  at  vintage-time,  in  excess  of  the  average 
monthly  number,  was  only  three  in  spite  of  the  large  numbers! 
Bezzola's  testimony,  which  has  long  been  cited  as  proof  of  the 
disastrous  results  of  the  use  of  alcohol  at  the  time  of  conception, 
must  be  discarded. 

Demme's  plausible  investigation  is  also  widely  quoted  to 
support  the  belief  that  alcohol  poisons  the  germ-plasm.  He 
studied  the  offspring  of  lo  drunken  and  lo  sober  pairs  of  parents, 
and  found  that  of  the  6i  children  of  the  latter,  50  were  normal, 
while  of  the  57  progeny  of  the  drunkards,  only  nine  were  normal. 
This  is  a  good  specimen  of  much  of  the  evidence  cited  to  prove 
that  alcohol  impairs  the  germ-plasm;  it  has  been  widely  circu- 
lated by  propagandists  in  America  during  recent  years.  Of 
course,  its  value  depends  wholly  on  whether  the  20  pairs  of 
parents  were  of  sound,  comparable  stock.  Karl  Pearson  has 
pointed  out  that  this  is  not  the  case.  Demme  selected  his 
children  of  drunkards  by  selecting  children  who  came  to  his 
hospital  on  account  of  imperfect  development  of  speech,  mental 
defect,  imbecility  or  idiocy.  When  he  found  families  in  which 
such  defective  children  occurred,  he  then  inquired  as  to  their 
ancestry.  Many  of  these  children,  he  found,  were  reduced  to  a 
condition  approaching  epilepsy,  or  actually  epileptic,  because 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  57 

they  themselves  were  alcoholic.  Obviously  such  material  can 
not  legitimately  be  used  to  prove  that  the  use  of  alcohol  by 
parents  injures  the  heredity  of  their  children.  The  figures  do 
not  at  all  give  the  proof  we  are  seeking,  that  alcohol  can  so 
affect  sound  germ-plasm  as  to  lead  to  the  production  of  defective 
children. 

Dr.  Bertholet  made  a  microscopic  examination  of  the  repro- 
ductive glands  of  75  chronic  male  alcoholics,  and  in  37  cases 
he  found  them  more  or  less  atrophied,  and  devoid  of  sperma- 
tozoa. Observing  the  same  glands  in  non-alcoholics  who  had 
died  of  various  chronic  diseases,  such  as  tuberculosis,  he  found 
no  such  condition.  His  conclusion  is  that  the  reproductive 
glands  are  more  sensitive  to  the  effects  of  alcohol  than  any 
other  organ.  So  far  as  is  known  to  us,  his  results  have  never 
been  discredited;  they  have,  on  the  contrary,  been  confirmed 
by  other  investigators.  They  are  of  great  significance  to  eu- 
genics, in  showing  how  the  action  of  natural  selection  to  purge 
the  race  of  drunkards  is  sometimes  facilitated  in  a  way  we  had 
not  counted,  through  reduced  fertility  due  to  alcohol,  as  well 
as  through  death  due  to  alcohol.  But  it  should  not  be  thought 
that  his  results  are  t)^ical,  and  that  all  chronic  alcoholists 
become  sterile:  every  reader  will  know  of  cases  in  his  own 
experience,  where  drunkards  have  large  families;  and  the  ex- 
perimental work  with  smaller  animals  also  shows  that  long- 
continued  inebriety  is  compatible  with  great  fecundity.  It  is 
probable  that  extreme  inebriety  reduces  fertility,  but  a  lesser 
amount  increases  it  in  the  cases  of  many  men  by  reducing  the 
prudence  which  leads  to  limited  families. 

In  1910  appeared  the  investigation  of  Miss  Ethel  M.  Elderton 
and  Karl  Pearson  on  school  children  in  Edinburgh  and  Man- 
chester.^ Their  aim  was  to  take  a  population  under  the  same 
environmental   conditions,    and   with   no   discoverable   initial 

•  A  First  Study  of  the  Influence  of  Parental  Alcoholism  on  the  Physique  and  Intelli- 
gence of  Of  spring.  By  Ethel  M.  Elderton  and  Karl  Pearson.  Eugenics  Laboratory 
Memoir  Series  X.  Harald  Westergaard,  who  reexamined  the  Elderton-Pearson 
data,  concludes  that  considerable  importance  is  to  be  attached  to  the  selective  ac- 
tion of  alcohol,  the  weaklings  in  the  alcoholic  families  having  been  weeded  out  early 
in  life. 


S8  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

differentiation,  and  inquire  whether  the  temperate  and  intem- 
perate sections  had  children  differing  widely  in  physique  and 
mentality.  Handling  their  material  with  the  most  refined 
statistical  methods,  and  in  an  elaborate  way,  they  reached  the 
conclusion  that  parental  alcoholism  does  not  markedly  affect 
the  physique  or  mentality  of  the  offspring  as  children.  Whether 
results  might  differ  in  later  life,  their  material  did  not  show. 
Their  conclusions  were  as  follows: 

"(i)  There  is  a  higher  death-rate  among  the  offspring  of 
alcohoUc  than  among  the  offspring  of  sober  parents.  This 
appears  to  be  more  marked  in  the  case  of  the  mother  than  in 
the  case  of  the  father,  and  since  it  is  sensibly  higher  in  the  case 
of  the  mother  who  has  drinking  bouts  [periodical  sprees]  than 
of  the  mother  who  habitually  drinks,  it  would  appear  to  be  due 
very  considerably  to  accidents  and  gross  carelessness  and  pos- 
sibly in  a  minor  degree  to  toxic  effect  on  the  offspring. 

"Owing  to  the  greater  fertility  of  alcoholic  parents,  the  net 
family  of  the  sober  is  hardly  larger  than  the  net  family  of  the 
alcoholic.  [It  should  be  remembered  that  the  study  did  not 
include  childless  couples.] 

"  (2)  The  mean  weight  and  height  of  the  children  of  alcoholic 
parents  are  slightly  greater  than  those  of  sober  parents,  but  as 
the  age  of  the  former  children  is  slightly  greater,  the  correlations 
when  corrected  for  age  are  slightly  positive,  i.  e.,  there  is  slightly 
greater  height  and  weight  in  the  children  of  the  sober." 

"  (3)  The  wages  of  the  alcoholic  as  contrasted  with  the  sober 
parent  show  a  slight  difference  compatible  with  the  employers' 
dislike  for  an  alcoholic  employee,  but  wholly  inconsistent  with 
a  marked  mental  or  physical  inferiority  in  the  alcoholic  parent. 

"  (4)  The  general  health  of  the  children  of  alcoholic  parents 
appears  on  the  whole  slightly  better  than  that  of  sober  parents. 
There  are  fewer  deUcate  children,  and  in  a  most  marked  way 
cases  of  tuberculosis  and  epilepsy  are  less  frequent  than  among 
the  children  of  sober  parents.  The  source  of  this  relation  may 
be  sought  in  two  directions;  the  physically  strongest  in  the 
community  have  probably  the  greatest  capacity  and  taste  for 
alcohol.    Further  the  higher  death  rate  of  the  children  of  al- 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM- PLASM  59 

coholic  parents  probably  leaves  the  fittest  to  survive.  Epilepsy 
and  tuberculosis  both  depending  upon  inherited  constitutional 
conditions,  they  will  be  more  common  in  the  parents  of  affected 
offspring,  and  probably  if  combined  with  alcohol,  are  incom- 
patible with  any  length  of  life  or  size  of  family.  If  these  views 
be  correct,  we  can  only  say  that  parental  alcohoUsm  has  no 
marked  effect  on  filial  health. 

"(5)  Parental  alcoholism  is  not  the  source  of  mental  defect 
in  offspring. 

"(6)  The  relationship,  if  any,  between  parental  alcoholism 
and  filial  intelUgence  is  so  slight  that  even  its  sign  can  not  be 
determined  from  the  present  material. 

"  (7)  The  normal  visioned  and  normal  refractioned  offspring 
appear  to  be  in  rather  a  preponderance  in  the  families  of  the 
drinking  parents,  the  parents  who  have  'bouts'  give  inter- 
mediate results,  but  there  is  no  substantial  relationship  between 
goodness  of  sight  and  parental  alcoholism.  Some  explanation 
was  sought  on  the  basis  of  alcoholic  homes  driving  the  children 
out  into  the  streets.  This  was  found  to  be  markedly  the  case, 
the  children  of  alcoholic  parents  spending  much  more  of  their 
spare  time  in  the  streets.  An  exiamination,  however,  of  the 
vision  and  refraction  of  children  with  regard  to  the  time  they 
spent  in-  and  out-of-doors,  showed  no  clear  and  definite  result, 
the  children  who  spent  the  whole  or  most  of  their  spare  time  in 
the  streets  having  the  most  myopia  and  also  most  normal  sight. 
It  was  not  possible  to  assert  that  the  outdoor  life  was  better 
for  the  sight,  or  that  the  better  sight  of  the  offspring  of  alcoholic 
parentage  was  due  to  the  greater  time  spent  outdoors. 

"  (8)  The  frequency  of  diseases  of  the  eye  and  eyelids,  which 
might  well  be  attributed  to  parental  neglect,  was  found  to  have 
Uttle,  if  any,  relation  to  parental  alcoholism. 

"To  sum  up,  then  no  marked  relation  has  been  found  between 
the  intelligence,  physique  or  disease  of  the  offspring  and  the 
parental  alcoholism  in  any  of  the  categories  mentioned.  On  the 
whole  the  balance  turns  as  often  in  favor  of  the  alcohoUc  as  of  the 
non-alcoholic  parentage.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  we  do  not 
attribute  this  to  the  alcohol  but  to  certain  physical  and  possibly 


6o  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

mental  characters  which  appear  to  be  associated  with  the 
tendency  to  alcohol." 

Of  the  many  criticisms  made  of  this  work,  most  are  irrelevant 
to  our  present  purpose,  or  have  been  satisfactorily  met  by  the 
authors.  It  must  be  said,  however,  that  as  the  children  exam- 
ined were  all  school  children,  the  really  degenerate  offspring  of 
alcoholics,  if  any  such  existed,  would  not  have  been  found,  be- 
cause they  would  not  have  been  admitted  to  the  school.  Fur- 
ther, it  is  not  definitely  known  whether  the  parents'  alcoholism 
dated  from  before  or  after  the  birth  of  the  child  examined. 
Then,  the  report  did  not  exactly  compare  the  offspring  of  drink- 
ers and  non-drinkers,  but  classified  the  parents  as  those  who 
drank,  and  those  who  were  sober;  the  latter  were  not,  for  the 
most  part,  teetotalers,  but  merely  persons  whose  use  of  alcohol 
was  so  moderate  that  it  exercised  no  visible  bad  influence  on  the 
health  of  the  individual  or  the  welfare  of  the  home.  Something 
can  be  said  on  both  sides  of  all  these  objections;  but  giving  them 
as  much  weight  as  one  thinks  necessary,  the  fact  remains  that 
the  Elderton-Pearson  investigation  failed  to  demonstrate  any 
racial  poisoning  due  to  alcohol,  in  the  kind  of  cases  where  one 
would  certainly  have  expected  it  to  be  demonstrated,  if  it 
existed. 

Much  more  observation  and  measurement  must  be  made  be- 
fore a  generalization  can  be  safely  drawn,  as  to  whether  alcohol 
is  or  is  not  a  racial  poison,  in  the  sense  in  which  that  expression 
is  used  by  eugenists.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  evidence 
which  is  commonly  believed  to  prove  beyond  doubt  that  alcohol 
does  injure  the  germ-plasm,  is  mostly  worthless.  But  it  must 
not  be  thought  that  the  authors  intend  to  deny  that  alcohol  is  a 
racial  poison,  where  the  dosage  is  very  heavy  and  continuous. 
If  we  have  no  good  evidence  that  it  is,  we  equally  lack  evidence 
on  the  other  side.  We  wish  only  to  suggest  caution  against  mak- 
ing rash  generalizations  on  the  subject  which  lack  supporting 
evidence  and  therefore  are  a  weak  basis  for  propaganda. 

So  far  as  immediate  action  is  concerned,  eugenics  must  pro- 
ceed on  the  basis  that  there  is  no  proof  that  alcohol  as  ordi- 
narily consumed  will  injure  the  human  germ-plasm.     To  say 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  6i 

this  is  not  in  any  way  to  minify  the  evil  results  which  alcohol 
often  has  on  the  individual,  or  the  disastrous  consequences  to 
his  offspring,  euthenically.  But  nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  mak- 
ing an  assumption  of  "racial  poisoning,"  and  acting  on  that 
assumption,  without  evidence  that  it  is  true;  and  the  temperance 
movement  would  command  more  respect  from  genetics  if  it 
ceased  to  allege  proof  that  alcohol  has  a  directly  injurious  effect 
on  the  race,  by  poisoning  the  human  germ-plasm,  when  no 
adequate  proof  exists. 

How,  then,  can  one  account  for  the  immense  bulk  of  cases, 
some  of  which  come  within  everyone's  range  of  vision,  where 
alcohohsm  in  the  parent  is  a,ssociated  with  defect  in  the  off- 
spring? By  a  process  of  exclusion,  we  are  driven  to  the  explana- 
tion already  indicated:  that  alcoholism  may  be  a  symptom, 
rather  than  a  cause,  of  degeneracy.  Some  drunkards  are  drunk- 
ards, because  they  come  of  a  stock  that  is,  in  a  way,  mentally 
defective;  physical  defects  are  frequently  correlated  in  such 
stocks;  naturally  the  children  inherit  part  or  all  of  the  parental 
defects  including,  very  likely,  alcoholism;  but  the  parent's 
alcoholism,  we  repeat,  must  not  be  considered  the  cause  of  the 
child's  defect.  The  child  would  have  been  defective  in  the 
same  way,  regardless  of  the  parent's  beverage. 

It  follows,  then,  as  a  practical  consequence  for  eugenics,  that 
in  the  light  of  present  knowledge  any  campaign  against  al- 
cohoHc  liquors  would  be  better  based  on  the  very  adequate 
ground  of  physiology  and  economics,  than  on  genetics.  From 
the  narrowest  point  of  view  of  genetics,  the  way  to  solve  the 
liquor  problem  would  be,  not  to  eliminate  drink,  but  to  eliminate 
the  drinker:  to  prevent  the  reproduction  of  the  degenerate 
stocks  and  the  tainted  strains  that  contribute  most  of  the 
chronic  alcoholics.  We  do  not  mean  to  advocate  this  as  the 
only  proper  basis  for  the  temperance  campaign,  because  the 
physiological  and  economic  aspects  are  of  sufficient  importance 
to  keep  up  the  campaign  at  twice  the  present  intensity.^  But 
it  is  desirable  to  have  the  eugenic  aspect  of  the  matter  clearly 

'  Prohibition  would  have  some  indirect  eugenic  effects,  which  will  be  discussed 
in  Chapter  XVIII. 


62  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

understood,  and  to  point  out  that  in  checking  the  production  of 
defectives  in  the  United  States,  eugenics  will  do  its  share,  and  a 
big  share,  toward  the  solution  of  the  drink  problem,  which  is  at 
the  same  time  being  attacked  along  other  and  equally  praise- 
worthy lines  by  other  people. 

A  number  of  other  substances  are  sometimes  credited  with 
being  racial  poisons. 

The  poison  of  Spirochete  pallida,  the  microorganism  which 
causes  syphilis,  has  been  widely  credited  with  a  directly  noxious 
effect  on  the  germ-plasm,  and  the  statement  has  been  made  that 
this  effect  can  be  transmitted  for  several  generations.  On  the 
other  hand,  healthy  children  are  reported  as  being  born  to  cured 
syphilitics.  Further  evidence  is  needed,  taking  care  to  eliminate 
cases  of  infection  from  the  parents.  If  the  alleged  deterioration 
really  occurs,  it  will  still  remain  to  be  determined  if  the  effect  is 
permanent  or  an  induction,  that  is,  a  change  in  the  germ-cells 
which  does  not  permanently  alter  the  nature  of  the  inherited 
traits,  and  which  would  disappear  in  a  few  generations  under 
favorable  conditions. 

The  case  against  lead  is  similar.  Sir  Thomas  Oliver,  in  his 
Diseases  of  Occupation,  sums  up  the  evidence  as  follows: 

"Rennert  has  attempted  to  express  in  statistical  terms  the 
varying  degrees  of  gravity  in  the  prognosis  of  cases  in  which 
at  the  moment  of  conception  both  parents  are  the  subjects  of 
lead  poisoning,  also  when  one  alone  is  affected.  The  mahgn 
influence  of  lead  is  reflected  upon  the  fetus  and  upon  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  pregnancy  94  times  out  of  100  when  both 
parents  have  been  working  in  lead,  92  times  when  the  mother 
alone  is  affected,  and  63  times  when  it  is  the  father  alone  who 
has  worked  in  lead.  Taking  seven  healthy  women  who  were 
married  to  lead  workers,  and  in  whom  there  was  a  total  of 
32  pregnancies,  Lewin  (Berhn)  tells  us  that  the  results  were  as 
follows:  II  miscarriages,  one  stillbirth,  8  children  died  within 
the  first  year  after  their  birth,  four  in  the  second  year,  five  in  the 
third  year  and  one  subsequent  to  this,  leaving  only  two  children 
out  of  32  pregnancies  as  likely  to  live  to  manhood.  In  cases 
where  women  have  had  a  series  of  miscarriages  so  long  as  their 


EFFECT  OF  LEAD  AS  A  "RACIAL  POISON" 
Fig.  7. — ^That  lead  poisoning  can  affect  the  germ  plasm  of  rabbits  is  indicated  by 
experiments  conducted  by  Leon  J.  Cole  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin.  With  refer- 
ence to  the  above  illustration,  Professor  Cole  writes:  "Each  of  the  photographs  shows 
two  young  from  the  same  litter,  in  all  cases  the  mother  being  a  normal  (nonpoisoned) 
albino.  In  each  of  the  litters  the  white  young  is  from  an  albino  father  which  re- 
ceived the  lead  treatment,  while  the  pigmented  offspring  is  from  a  normal,  honozygous, 
pigmented  male.  While  these  are,  it  is  true,  selected  individuals,  they  represent 
what  tend  to  be  average,  rather  than  extreme,  conditions.  The  albino  male  was 
considerably  larger  than  the  pigmented  male;  nevertheless  his  young  average  dis- 
tinctly smaller  in  size.    Note  also  the  brighter  expression  of  the  pigmented  young." 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  63 

husbands  worked  in  lead,  a  change  of  industrial  occupation  on 
the  part  of  the  husband  restores  to  the  wives  normal  child- 
bearing  powers."  The  data  of  Constantin  Paul,  published  as 
long  ago  as  i860,  indicated  that  lead  exercised  an  injurious  effect 
through  the  male  as  well  as  the  female  parent.  This  sort  of 
evidence  is  certainly  weak,  in  that  it  fails  to  take  into  account 
the  possible  effects  of  environment;  and  one  would  do  well  to 
keep  an  open  mind  on  the  subject.  In  a  recent  series  of  careful 
experiments  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  Leon  J.  Cole  has 
treated  male  rabbits  with  lead.  He  reports:  "The  'leaded' 
males  have  produced  as  many  or  more  offspring  than  normal 
fathers,  but  their  young  have  averaged  smaller  in  size  and 
are  of  lowered  vitality,  so  that  larger  numbers  of  them  die 
off  at  an  early  age  than  is  the  case  with  those  from,  untreated 
fathers." 

There  is,  then,  a  suspicion  that  lead  is  a  racial  poison,  but  no 
evidence  as  yet  as  to  whether  the  effect  is  permanent  or  in  the 
nature  of  an  induction. 

This  concludes  the  short  list  of  substances  for  which  there  has 
been  any  plausible  case  made  out,  as  racial  poisons.  Gonorrhea, 
malaria,  arsenic,  tobacco,  numerous  other  substances  have  been 
mentioned  from  time  to  time,  and  even  ardently  contended  by 
propagandists  to  be  racial  poisons,  but  in  the  case  of  none  of 
them,  so  far  as  we  know,  is  there  any  evidence  to  support  the 
claim.  And  as  has  been  shown,  in  the  case  of  the  three  chief  so- 
called  racial  poisons,  alcohol,  syphilis  and  lead,  the  evidence 
is  not  great.  We  are  thus  in  a  position  to  state  that,  from  the 
eugenists'  point  of  view,  the  origination  of  degeneracy,  by  some 
direct  action  of  the  germ-plasm,  is  a  contingency  that  hardly 
needs  to  be  reckoned  with.  Even  in  case  the  evidence  were  much 
stronger  than  it  is,  the  damage  done  may  only  be  a  physiological 
or  chemical  induction,  the  effects  of  which  will  wear  off  in  a  few 
generations;  rather  than  a  radical  change  in  the  hereditary  con- 
stituents of  the  germ-plasm.  The  germ-plasm  is  so  carefully 
isolated  and  guarded  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  injure  it, 
except  by  treatment  so  severe  as  to  kill  it  altogether;  and  the 
degeneracy  with  which  eugenists  are  called  on  to  deal  is  a 


64  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

degeneracy  which  is  running  along  from  generation  to  generation 
and  which,  when  once  stopped  by  the  cessation  of  reproduction, 
is  in  little  danger  of  being  originated  anew  through  some  racial 
poison. 

Through  these  facts,  the  problem  of  race  betterment  is  not 
only  immensely  simplified,  but  it  is  clearly  shown  to  be  more  a 
matter  for  treatment  by  the  biologist,  acting  through  eugenics, 
than  for  the  optimistic  improver  of  the  environment. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  it  is  widely  believed  that  some 
such  result  as  a  direct  influence  of  the  germ-plasm  can  be 
produced:  that  is  through  the  imaginary  process  known  as 
maternal  impression,  pre-natal  influence,  etc.  Belief  in  maternal 
impressions  is  no  novelty.  In  the  book  of  Genesis  ^  Jacob  is 
described  as  making  use  of  it  to  get  the  better  of  his  tricky 
father-in-law.  Some  animal  breeders  still  profess  faith  in  it  as  a 
part  of  their  methods  of  breeding:  if  they  want  a  black  calf,  for 
instance,  they  will  keep  a  white  cow  in  a  black  stall,  and  express 
perfect  confidence  that  her  offspring  will  resemble  midnight 
darkness.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  this  method,  if  it  "works," 
would  be  a  potent  instrument  for  eugenics.  And  it  is  being 
recommended  for  that  reason.  Says  a  recent  writer,  who 
professes  on  the  cover  of. her  book  to  give  a  "complete  and  in- 
telligent summary  of  all  the  principles  of  eugenics": 

"Too  much  emphasis  can  not  be  placed  upon  the  necessity 
of  young  people  making  the  proper  choice  of  mates  in  marriage; 
yet  if  the  production  of  superior  children  were  dependent  upon 
that  one  factor,  the  outlook  would  be  most  discouraging  to 
prospective  fathers  and  mothers,  for  weak  traits  of  character  are 
to  be  found  in  all.  But  when  young  people  learn  that  by  a 
conscious  endeavor  to  train  themselves,  they  are  thereby  train- 
ing their  unborn  children,  they  can  feel  that  there  is  some  hope 

'  Chapter  XXX,  verses  31-43.  A  knowledge  of  the  pedigree  of  Laban's  cattle 
would  undoubtedly  explain  where  the  stripes  came  from.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
how  this  idea  persists:  a  correspondent  has  recently  sent  an  account  of  seven  striped 
lambs  bom  after  their  mothers  had  seen  a  striped  skunk.  The  actual  explanation 
is  doubtless  that  suggested  by  Heller  in  the  Journal  of  Heredity,  VI,  480  (October, 
1915),  that  a  stripe  is  part  of  the  ancestral  coat  pattern  of  the  sheep,  and  appears 
from  time  to  time  because  of  reversion. 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  65 

and  joy  in  parentage;  that  it  is  something  to  which  they  can 
look  forward  with  delight  and  even  rapture;  then  they  will  be 
inspired  to  work  hard  to  attain  the  best  and  highest  that  there 
is  in  them,  leading  the  Uves  that  will  not  only  be  a  blessing  to 
themselves,  but  to  their  succeeding  generation." 

The  author  of  this  quotation  has  no  difficulty  in  finding  sup- 
porters. Many  physicians  and  surgeons,  who  are  supposed  to 
be  trained  in  scientific  methods  of  thought,  will  indorse  what  she 
says.  The  author  of  one  of  the  most  recent  and  in  many  re- 
spects admirable  books  on  the  care  of  babies,  is  almost  contemp- 
tuous in  her  disdain  for  those  who  think  otherwise : 

"Science  WTangles  over  the  rival  importance  of  heredity  and 
environment,  but  we  women  know  what  effects  prenatal  in- 
fluence works  on  children."  "The  woman  who  frets  brings  forth 
a  nervous  child.  The  woman  who  rebels  generally  bears  a  morbid 
child."  "Self-control,  cheerfulness  and  love  for  the  Uttle  Ufe 
breathing  in  unison  with  your  own  will  practically  insure  you  a 
child  of  normal  physique  and  nerves." 

Such  statements,  backed  up  by  a  great  array  of  writers  and 
speakers  whom  the  layman  supposes  to  be  scientific,  and  who 
think  themselves  scientific,  can  not  fail  to  influence  strongly 
an  immense  number  of  fathers  and  mothers.  If  they  are  truly 
scientific  statements,  their  general  acceptance  must  be  a  great 
good. 

But  think  of  the  misplaced  effort  if  these  widespread  state- 
ments are  false ! 

Is  there,  or  is  there  not,  a  short  cut  to  race  betterment? 
Everyone  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  race  must  feel  the 
necessity  of  getting  at  the  truth  in  the  case;  and  the  truth  can 
be  found  only  by  rigorously  scientific  thought. 

Let  us  turn  to  the  observed  facts.  This  sample  is  taken  from 
the  health  department  of  a  popular  magazine,  quite  recently 
issued: 

"Since  birth  my  body  has  been  covered  with  scales  strikingly 
resembling  the  surface  of  a  fish.  My  parents  and  I  have  ex- 
pended considerable  money  on  remedies  and  specialists  without 
deriving  any  permanent  benefit.    I  bathe  my  entire  body  with 


66  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

hot  water  daily,  using  the  best  quality  of  soap.  The  scales  fall 
off  continually.  My  brother,  who  is  younger  than  myself,  is 
afflicted  with  the  same  trouble,  but  in  a  lesser  degree.  My  sister, 
the  third  member  of  the  family,  has  been  troubled  only  on  the 
knees  and  abdomen.  My  mother  has  always  been  quite  nervous 
and  susceptible  to  any  unusual  mental  impression.  She  be- 
lieves that  she  marked  me  by  craving  fish,  and  preferring  to 
clean  them  herself.  Diu-ing  the  prenatal  Hfe  of  my  brother, 
she  worried  much  lest  she  might  mark  him  in  the  same  way.  In 
the  case  of  my  sister  she  tried  to  control  her  mind."  ^ 

Another  is  taken  from  a  Uttle  publication  which  is  devoted  to 
eugenics.^  As  a  "horrible  example"  the  editor  gi\'^s  the  case 
of  Jesse  Pomeroy,  a  murderer  whom  older  readers  will  remember. 
His  father,  it  appears,  worked  in  a  meat  market.  Before  the 
birth  of  Jesse,  his  mother  went  daily  to  the  shop  to  carry  a 
limcheon  to  her  husband,  and  her  eyes  naturally  fell  upon  the 
bloody  carcases  hung  about  the  walls.  Inevitably,  the  sight  of 
such  things  would  produce  bloody  thoughts  in  the  mind  of  the 
imbom  child! 

These  are  extreme  cases;  we  quote  from  a  medieval  medical 
writer  another  case  that  carries  the  principle  to  its  logical  con- 
clusion: A  woman  saw  a  Negro, — at  that  time  a  rarity  in  Europe. 
She  immediately  had  a  sickening  suspicion  that  her  child  would 
be  bom  with  a  black  skin.  To  obviate  the  danger,  she  had  a 
happy  inspiration — she  hastened  home  and  washed  her  body 
all  over  with  warm  water.  When  the  child  appeared,  his  skin 
was  foimd  to  be  normally  white — except  between  the  fingers 

1  Such  a  skin  affection,  known  as  icthyosis,  xerosis  or  xeroderma,  is  usually  due 
to  heredity.  Davenport  says  it  "is  esf)ecially  apt  to  be  found  in  families  in  which 
consanguineous  marriages  occur  and  this  fact,  together  with  the  pedigrees  [which 
he  studied],  suggests  that  it  is  due  to  the  absence  of  some  factor  that  controls  the 
process  of  comification  of  the  skin.  On  this  hypothesis  a  normal  person  who  belongs 
to  an  affected  famUy  may  marry  into  a  normal  family  with  impunity,  but  cousin 
marriages  are  to  be  avoided."  See  Davenport,  C.  B.,  Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics, 
p.  134.    New  York,  191 1. 

*  Its  eugenics  is  to  be  effected  through  the  mental  exertion  of  mothers.  And 
we  have  lately  been  in  correspondence  with  a  western  attorney  who  is  endeavoring 
to  form  an  association  of  persons  who  will  agree  to  be  the  parents  of  "wiUed"  chil- 
dren. By  this  means,  he  has  calculated  (and  sends  a  chart  to  prove  it)  that  it  will 
require  only  four  generations  to  produce  the  Superman. 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  67 

and  toes,  where  it  was  black.  His  mother  had  failed  to  wash  her- 
self thoroughly  in  those  places! 

Of  covirse,  few  of  the  cases  now  credited  are  as  gross  as  this, 
but  the  principle  involved  remains  the  same. 

We  will  take  a  hypothetical  case  of  a  common  sort  for  the  sake 
of  clearness:  the  mother  receives  a  woimd  on  the  arm;  when  her 
child  is  born  it  is  found  to  have  a  scar  of  some  sort  at  about  the 
same  place  on  the  corresponding  arm.  Few  mothers  would  fail 
to  see  the  result  of  a  maternal  impression  here.  But  how  could 
this  mark  have  been  transmitted?  This  is  not  a  question  of  the 
transmission  of  acquired  characters  through  the  germ-plasm, 
or  anything  of  that  sort,  for  the  child  was  already  formed  when 
the  mother  was  injured.  One  is  obliged,  therefore,  to  beUeve 
that  the  injury  was  in  some  way  transmitted  through  the 
placenta,  the  only  connection  between  the  mother  and  the  un- 
born child;  and  that  it  was  then  reproduced  in  some  way  in  the 
child. 

Here  is  a  situation  which,  examined  in  the  cold  light  of  reason, 
puts  a  heavy  enough  strain  on  the  credulity.  Such  an  in- 
fluence can  reach  the  embryo  only  through  the  blood  of  the 
mother.  Is  it  conceivable  to  any  rational  human  being,  that 
a  scar,  or  what  not,  on  the  mother's  body  can  be  dissolved  in  her 
blood,  pass  through  the  placenta  into  the  child's  circulation,  and 
then  gather  itself  together  into  a  definite  scar  on  the  infant's 
arm? 

There  is  just  as  much  reason  to  expect  the  child  to  grow  to 
resemble  the  cow  on  whose  milk  it  is  fed  after  birth,  as  to  expect 
it  to  grow  to  resemble  its  mother,  because  of  prenatal  influence, 
as  the  term  is  customarily  used,  for  once  development  has  begun, 
the  child  draws  nothing  more  than  nourishment  from  its  mother. 

Of  course  we  are  accustomed  to  the  pious  rejoinder  that  man 
must  not  expect  to  understand  all  the  mysteries  of  Ufe;  and  to 
hear  vague  talk  about  the  wonder  of  wireless  telegraphy.  But 
wireless  telegraphy  is  something  very  definite  and  tangible — 
there  is  little  mystery  about  it.  Waves  of  a  given  frequency 
are  sent  off,  and  caught  by  an  instrument  attuned  to  the  same 
frequency.    How  any  rational  person  can  support  a  belief  in 


68  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

maternal  impressions  by  such  an  analogy,  if  he  knows  anything 
about  anatomy  and  physiology,  passes  comprehension. 

Now  we  are  far  from  declaring  that  a  reason  can  be  found  for 
everything  that  happens.  Science  does  not  refuse  belief  in  an 
observed  fact  merely  because  it  is  unexplainable.  But  let  us 
examine  this  case  of  maternal  impressions  a  little  further.  What 
can  be  learned  of  the  time  element? 

Immediately  arises  the  significant  fact  that  most  of  the  marks, 
deformities  and  other  effects  which  are  credited  to  prenatal 
influence  must  on  this  hypothesis  take  place  at  a  comparatively 
late  period  in  the  antenatal  life  of  the  child.  The  mother  is 
frightened  by  a  dog;  the  child  is  bom  with  a  dog-face.  If  it 
be  asked  when  her  fright  occurred,  it  is  usually  found  that  it 
was  not  earlier  than  the  third  month,  more  likely  somewhere 
near  the  sixth. 

But  it  ought  to  be  well  known  that  the  development  of  all 
the  main  parts  of  the  body  has  been  completed  at  the  end  of  the 
second  month.  At  that  time,  the  mother  rarely  does  more  than 
suspect  the  coming  of  the  child,  and  events  which  she  believes 
to  "mark"  the  child,  usually  occur  after  the  fourth  or  fifth 
month,  when  the  child  is  substantially  formed,  and  it  is  impos- 
sible that  many  of  the  effects  supposed  to  occur  could  actually 
occur.  Indeed,  it  is  now  believed  that  most  errors  of  develop- 
ment, such  as  lead  to  the  production  of  great  physical  defects, 
are  due  to  some  cause  within  the  embryo  itself,  and  that  most 
of  them  take  place  in  the  first  three  or  four  weeks,  when  the 
mother  is  by  no  means  likely  to  influence  the  course  of  embry- 
ological  development  by  her  mental  attitude  toward  it,  for  the 
very  good  reason  that  she  knows  nothing  about  it. 

Unless  she  is  immured  or  isolated  from  the  world,  nearly 
every  expectant  mother  sees  many  sights  of  the  kind  that,  ac- 
cording to  popular  tradition,  cause  "marks."  Why  is  it  that 
results  are  so  few?  Why  is  it  that  women  doctors  and  nurses, 
who  are  constantly  exposed  to  unpleasant  sights,  have  children 
that  do  not  differ  from  those  of  other  mothers? 

Darwin,  who  knew  how  to  think  scientifically,  saw  that  this 
is  the  logical  line  of  proof  or  disproof.    When  Sir  Joseph  Hooker, 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  69 

the  botanist  and  geologist  who  was  his  closest  friend,  wrote  of  a 
supposed  case  of  maternal  impression,  one  of  his  kinswomen 
having  insisted  that  a  mole  which  appeared  on  her  child  was 
the  effect  of  fright  upon  herself  for  having,  before  the  birth  of 
the  child,  blotted  with  sepia  a  copy  of  Turner's  Liber  Studi- 
orum  that  had  been  lent  her  with  special  injunctions  to  be 
careful,  Darwin  ^  replied:  "I  should  be  very  much  obliged,  if 
at  any  future  or  leisure  time  you  could  tell  me  on  what  you 
ground  your  doubtful  belief  in  imagination  of  a  mother  affecting 
her  offspring.  I  have  attended  to  the  several  statements  scat- 
tered about,  but  do  not  believe  in  more  than  accidental  coinci- 
dences. W.  Hunter  told  my  father,  then  in  a  lying-in  hospital, 
that  in  many  thousand  cases  he  had  asked  the  mother,  before 
her  confinement,  whether  anything  had  affected  her  imagination, 
and  recorded  the  answers;  and  absolutely  not  one  case  came 
right,  though,  when  the  child  was  anything  remarkable,  they 
afterwards  made  the  cap  to  fit." 

Any  doctor  who  has  handled  many  maternity  cases  can  call 
to  mind  instances  where  every  condition  was  present  to  perfec- 
tion, for  the  production  of  maternal  impression,  on  the  time- 
honored  lines.  None  occurred.  Most  mothers  can,  if  they  give 
the  matter  careful  consideration,  duplicate  this  experience  from 
their  oAvn.    Why  is  it  that  results  are  so  rare? 

That  Darwin  gave  the  true  explanation  of  a  great  many  of 
the  alleged  cases  is  perfectly  clear  to  us.  When  the  child  is 
born  with  any  peculiar  characteristic,  the  mother  hunts  for 
some  experience  in  the  preceding  months  that  might  explain  it. 
If  she  succeeds  in  finding  any  experience  of  her  own  at  all  re- 
sembling in  its  effects  the  effect  which  the  infant  shows,  she 
considers  she  has  proved  causation,  has  established  a  good  case 
of  prenatal  influence. 

It  is  not  causation;  it  is  coincidence.  ' 

If  the  prospective  mother  plays  or  sings  a  great  deal,  with  the 
idea  of  giving  her  child  a  musical  endowment,  and  the  child 
actually  turns  out  to  have  musical  talent,  the  mother  at  once 

'  Life  and  Letters  of  Charles  Darwin,  Vol.  I,  p.  302,  New  York,  1897.  The  letter 
is  dated  1844. 


70  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

recalls  her  yearning  that  such  might  be  the  case;  her  assiduous 
practice  which  she  hoped  would  be  of  benefit  to  her  child.  She 
immediately  decides  that  it  did  benefit  him,  and  she  becomes  a 
convinced  witness  to  the  behef  in  prenatal  culture.  Has  she 
not  herself  demonstrated  it? 

She  has  not.  But  if  she  would  examine  the  child's  hered- 
ity, she  would  probably  find  a  taste  for  music  running  in  the 
germ-plasm.  Her  study  and  practice  had  not  the  sUghtest 
effect  on  this  hereditary  disposition;  it  is  equally  certain  that 
the  child  would  have  been  born  with  a  taste  for  music  if  its 
mother  had  devoted  eight  hours  a  day  for  nine  months  to 
cultivating  thoughts  of  hatred  for  the  musical  profession 
and  repugnance  for  everything  that  possesses  rhythm  or 
harmony. 

It  necessarily  follows,  then,  that  attempts  to  influence  the 
inherent  nature  of  the  child,  physically  or  mentally,  through 
"prenatal  culture,"  are  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  child 
develops  along  the  lines  of  the  potentiaUties  which  existed  in 
the  two  germ-cells  that  united  to  become  its  origin.  The 
course  of  its  development  can  not  be  changed  in  any  specific 
way  by  any  corresponding  act  or  attitude  of  its  mother,  good 
hygiene  alone  need  be  her  concern. 

It  must  necessarily  follow  that  attempts  to  improve  the  race 
on  a  large  scale,  by  the  general  adoption  of  prenatal  culture  as 
an  instrument  of  eugenics,  are  useless. 

Indeed,  the  logical  implication  of  the  teaching  is  the  reverse 
of  eugenic.  It  would  give  a  woman  reason  to  think  she  might 
marry  a  man  whose  heredity  was  most  objectionable,  and  yet, 
by  prenatal  culture,  save  her  children  from  paying  the  inevit- 
able penalty  of  this  weak  heritage.  The  world  has  long  shud- 
dered over  the  future  of  the  girl  who  marries  a  man  to  reform 
him;  but  think  what  it  means  to  the  future  of  the  race  if  a  su- 
perior girl,  armed  with  correspondence  school  lessons  in  pre- 
natal culture,  marries  a  man  to  reform  his  children! 

Those  who  practice  this  doctrine  are  doomed  to  disillusion. 
The  time  they  spend  on  prenatal  culture  is  not  cultivating  the 
child;  it  is  merely  perpetuating  a  fallacy.    Not  only  is  their 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  71 

time  thus  spent  wasted,  but  worse,  for  they  might  have  em- 
ployed it  in  ways  that  really  would  have  benefited  the  child — 
in  open-air  exercise,  for  instance. 

To  recapitulate,  the  facts  are: 

(i)  That  there  is,  before  birth,  no  connection  between  mother 
and  child,  by  which  impressions  on  the  mother's  mind  or  body 
could  be  transmitted  to  the  child's  mind  or  body. 

(2)  That  in  most  cases  the  marks  or  defects  whose  origin  is 
attributed  to  maternal  impression,  must  ncv^essarily  have  been 
complete  long  before  the  incident  occurred  which  the  mother, 
after  the  child's  birth,  ascribes  as  the  cause. 

(3)  That  these  phenomena  usually  do  not  occur  when  they 
are,  and  by  hypothesis  ought  to  be,  expected.  The  explanations 
are  found  after  the  event,  and  that  is  regarded  as  causation  which 
is  really  coincidence. 

Prenatal  care  as  a  euthenic  measure  is  of  course  not  only 
legitimate  but  urgent.  The  embryo  derives  its  entire  nourish- 
ment from  the  mother;  and  its  development  depends  wholly 
on  its  supply  of  nourishment.  Anything  which  affects  the 
supply  of  nourishment  will  affect  the  embryo  in  a  general,  not  a 
particular  way.  If  the  mother's  mental  and  physical  condition 
be  good,  the  supply  of  nourishment  to  the  embryo  is  likely  to 
be  good,  and  development  will  be  normal.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  mother  is  constantly  harassed  by  fear  or  hatred,  her 
physical  health  will  suffer,  she  will  be  unable  properly  to  nourish 
her  developing  offspring,  and  it  may  be  its  poor  physical  con- 
dition when  born,  indicates  this. 

Further,  if  the  mother  experiences  a  great  mental  or  physical 
shock,  it  may  so  upset  her  health  that  her  child  is  not  properly 
nourished,  its  development  is  arrested,''  mentally  as  well  as 
physically,  and  it  is  born  defective.  H.  H.  Goddard,  for  ex- 
ample, tells  ^  of  a  high-grade  imbecile  in  the  Training  School  at 
Vineland,  N.  J.  "Nancy  belongs  to  a  thoroughly  normal, 
respectable  family.  There  is  nothing  to  account  for  the  condi- 
tion unless  one  accepts  the  mother's  theory.    While  it  sounds 

'  Goddard,  H.  H.,  Feeblemindedness,  p.  359.  New  York,  the  Macmillan  Com- 
pany, 1914. 


72  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

somewhat  like  the  discarded  theory  of  maternal  impression,  yet 
it  is  not  impossible  that  the  fright  and  shock  which  the  mother 
received  may  have  interfered  with  the  nutrition  of  the  unborn 
child  and  resulted  in  the  mental  defect.  The  story  in  brief  is 
as  follows.  Shortly  before  this  child  was  bom,  the  mother  was 
compelled  to  take  care  of  a  sister-in-law  who  was  in  a  similar 
condition  and  very  ill  with  convulsions.  Our  child's  mother 
was  many  times  frightened  severely  as  her  sister-in-law  was 
quite  out  of  her  mind." 

It  is  easily  understandable  that  any  event  which  makes  such 
an  impression  on  the  mother  as  to  affect  her  health,  might  so 
disturb  the  normal  functioning  of  her  body  that  her  child  would 
be  badly  nourished,  or  even  poisoned.  Such  facts  undoubtedly 
form  the  basis  on  which  the  airy  fabric  of  prenatal  culture 
was  reared  by  those  who  lived  before  the  days  of  scientific 
biology. 

Thus,  it  is  easy  enough  to  see  the  real  explanation  of  such 
cases  as  those  mentioned  near  the  beginning  of  this  discussion. 
The  mothers  who  fret  and  rebel  over  their  maternity,  she  found, 
are  likely  to  bear  neurotic  children.  It  is  obvious  (i)  that 
mothers  who  fret  and  rebel  are  quite  likely  themselves  to  be 
neurotic  in  constitution,  and  the  child  naturally  gets  its  heredity 
from  them:  (2)  that  constant  fretting  and  rebellion  would  so 
affect  the  mother's  health  that  her  child  would  not  be  properly 
nourished. 

When,  however,  she  goes  on  to  draw  the  inference  that  "  self- 
control,  cheerfulness  and  love  .  .  .  will  practically  insure  you 
a  child  normal  in  physique  and  nerves,"  we  are  obliged  to  stop. 
We  know  that  what  she  says  is  not  true.  If  the  child's  heredity 
is  bad,  neither  self-control,  cheerfulness,  love,  nor  anything 
else  known  to  science,  can  make  that  heredity  good. 

At  first  thought,  one  may  wish  it  were  otherwise.  There 
is  something  inspiring  in  the  idea  of  a  mother  overcoming  the 
effect  of  heredity  by  the  sheer  force  of  her  own  will-power. 
But  perhaps  in  the  long  run  it  is  as  well;  for  there  are  advantages 
on  the  other  side.  It  should  be  a  satisfaction  to  mothers  to 
know  that  their  children  will  not  be  marked  or  injured  by  un- 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  GERM-PLASM  73 

toward  events  in  the  antenatal  days;  that  if  the  child's  heredity 
can  not  be  changed  for  the  better,  neither  can  it  be  changed  for 
the  worse. 

The  prenatal  culturists  and  maternal-impressionists  are  try- 
ing to  place  on  her  a  responsibility  which  she  need  not  bear. 
Obviously,  it  is  the  mother  who  is  most  nearly  concerned  with 
the  bogy  of  maternal  impressions,  and  it  should  make  for  her 
peace  of  mind  to  know  that  it  is  nothing  more  than  a  bogy. 
It  is  important  for  the  expectant  mother  to  keep  herself  in  as 
nearly  perfect  condition  as  possible,  both  physically  and  men- 
tally. Her  bodily  mechanism  will  then  run  smoothly,  and  the 
child  will  get  from  her  blood  the  nourishment  needed  for  its  de- 
velopment. Beyond  that  there  is  nothing  the  mother  can  do 
to  influence  the  development  of  her  child. 

There  is  another  and  somewhat  similar  fallacy  which  de- 
serves a  passing  word,  although  it  is  of  more  concern  to  the 
live-stock  breeder  than  to  the  eugenist.  It  is  called  telegony 
and  is,  briefly,  this:  that  conception  by  a  female  results  in  a 
definite  modification  of  her  germ-plasm  from  the  influence  of 
the  male,  and  that  this  modification  will  be  shown  in  the  off- 
spring she  may  subsequently  bear  to  a  second  male.  The  only 
case  where  it  is  often  invoked  in  the  human  race  is  in  miscegena- 
tion. A  white  woman  has  been  married  to  a  Negro,  for  instance, 
and  has  borne  one  or  more  mulatto  offspring.  Subsequently, 
she  mates  with  a  white  man;  but  her  children  by  him,  instead 
of  being  pure  white,  it  is  alleged,  will  be  also  mulattoes.  The 
idea  of  telegony,  the  persistent  influence  of  the  first  mating, 
may  be  invoked  to  explain  this  discrepancy. 

It  is  a  pure  myth.  There  is  no  good  evidence  ^  to  support 
it,  and  there  is  abundant  evidence  to  contradict  it.  Telegony 
is  still  believed  by  many  animal  breeders,  but  it  has  no  place 
in  science.  In  such  a  case  as  the  one  quoted,  the  explanation 
is  undoubtedly  that  the  supposed  father  is  not  the  real  one; 
and  this  explanation  will  dispose  of  all  other  cases  of  telegony 
which  can  not  be  explained,  as  in  most  instances  they  can  be, 

•  For  a  review  of  the  evidence  consult  an  article  on  "Telegony"  by  Dr.  Etienne 
Rabaud  in  the  Journal  of  Heredity,  Vol.  V,  No.  9,  pp.  389-400;  September,  1914. 


74  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

by  the  mixed  ancestry  of  the  offspring  and  the  innate  tendency 
of  all  living  things  to  vary. 

Now  to  sum  up  this  long  chapter.  We  started  with  a  con- 
sideration of  the  germ-plasm,  the  physical  basis  of  life;  pointing 
out  that  it  is  continuous  from  generation  to  generation,  and 
potentially  immortal;  that  it  is  carefully  isolated  and  guarded 
in  the  body,  so  that  it  is  not  likely  to  be  injured  by  any  ordinary 
means. 

One  of  the  logical  results  of  this  continuity  of  the  germ-plasm 
is  that  modifications  of  the  body  of  the  parent,  or  acquired 
characters,  can  hardly  be  transferred  to  the  germ-plasm  and 
become  a  part  of  the  inheritance.  Further  the  experimental 
evidence  upholds  this  position,  and  the  inheritance  of  acquired 
body  characters  may  be  disregarded  by  eugenics,  which  is 
therefore  obliged  to  concern  itself  solely  with  the  material  al- 
ready in  existence  in  the  germ-plasm,  except  as  that  material 
may  be  changed  by  variation  which  can  neither  be  predicted  nor 
controlled. 

The  evidence  that  the  germ-plasm  can  be  permanently  modi- 
fied does  not  warrant  the  belief;  and  such  results,  if  they  exist  at 
all,  are  not  large  enough  or  uniform  enough  to  concern  the 
eugenist. 

Prenatal  culture  and  telegony  were  found  to  be  mere  delu- 
sions. There  is  no  justification  for  hoping  to  influence  the  race 
for  good  through  the  action  of  any  kind  of  external  influences; 
and  there  is  not  much  danger  of  influencing  it  for  ill  through 
these  external  influences.  The  situation  must  be  faced  squarely 
then:  if  the  race  is  to  be  improved,  it  must  be  by  the  use  of  the 
material  already  in  existence;  by  endeavor  to  change  the  birth- 
and  death-rates  so  as  to  alter  the  relative  proportions  of  the 
amounts  of  good  and  bad  germ-plasm  in  the  race.  This  is  the 
only  road  by  which  the  goal  of  eugenics  can  be  reached. 


CHAPTER  III 
DIFFERENCES  AMONG  MEN 

While  Mr.  Jefferson,  when  he  wrote  into  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  his  belief  in  the  self -evidence  of  the  truth  that  all 
men  are  created  equal,  may  have  been  thinking  of  legal  rights 
merely,  he  was  expressing  an  opinion  common  among  philos- 
ophers of  his  time.  J.  J.  Rousseau  it  was  who  made  the  idea 
popular,  and  it  met  with  widespread  acceptance  for  many 
years.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  phrase  has  long 
been  a  favorite  with  the  demagogue  and  the  Utopian.  Even  now 
the  doctrine  is  by  no  means  dead.  The  American  educational 
system  is  based  largely  on  this  dogma,  and  much  of  the  political 
system  seems  to  be  grounded  on  it.  It  can  be  seen  in  the  tenets 
of  labor  unions,  in  the  practice  of  many  philanthropies — traces 
may  be  found  almost  anywhere  one  turns,  in  fact. 

Common  enough  as  applied  to  mental  qualities,  the  theory  of 
human  equality  is  even  more  widely  held  of  "moral"  qualities. 
Men  are  considered  to  be  equally  responsible  for  their  conduct, 
and  failure  to  conform  to  the  accepted  code  in  this  respect  brings 
punishment.  It  is  sometimes  conceded  that  men  have  had 
differing  opportunities  to  learn  the  principles  of  morality;  but 
given  equal  opportunities,  it  is  almost  universally  held  that 
failure  to  follow  the  principles  indicates  not  inability  but  un- 
willingness. In  short,  public  opinion  rarely  admits  that  men 
may  differ  in  their  inherent  capacity  to  act  morally. 

In  view  of  its  almost  universal  and  unquestioned,  although 
half  unconscious,  acceptance  as  part  of  the  structure  of  society, 
it  becomes  of  the  utmost  importance  that  this  doctrine  of  human 
equality  should  be  examined  by  scientific  methods. 

Fortunately  this  can  be  done  with  ease.  Methods  of  mental 
and  physical  measurement  that  have  been  evolved  during  the 

75 


76 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


last  few  decades  offer  results  that  admit  of  no  refutation,  and 
they  can  be  applied  in  hundreds  of  different  places. 

It  will  not  be  worth  while  to  spend  any  time  demonstrating 
that  all  individuals  differ,  at  birth  and  during  their  subsequent 


—  M00( 

) 

-3000 

-2(100 

__  1000 

""children 

-  looo 

■~1 

K9.    iiiivvvivnvfliixx 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  lo-YEAR-OLD  SCHOOL  CHILDREN 
Fig.  8. — The  graph  shows  that  lo-year-old  children  in  Connecticut  (1903)  are  to 
be  found  in  every  grade,  from  the  first  to  the  eighth.    The  greatest  number  is  in  the 
fourth  grade,  and  the  number  who  are  advanced  is  just  about  the  same  as   the 
number  who  are  retarded. 

life,  physically.  The  fact  is' patent  to  all.  It  carries  with  it  as  a 
necessary  corollary  mental  differences,  since  the  brain  is  part 
of  the  body;  nevertheless,  we  shall  demonstrate  these  mental 
differences  independently. 

We  present  in  Fig.  8  a  graph  from  E,  L.  Thomdike,  showing 
the  number  of  lo-year-old  children  in  Connecticut  (1903)  in 
each  school  grade.  If  the  children  are  all  intellectually  equal, 
all  the  lo-year-olds  ought  to  be  in  the  same  grade,  or  near  it. 
Numerous  explanations  of  their  wide  distribution  suggest  them- 
selves; as  a  working  hypothesis  one  might  adopt  the  suggestion 
that  it  is  because  the  children  actually  differ  in  innate  ability  to 


DIFFERENCES  AMONG  MEN 


77 


the  extent  here  indicated.  This  hypothesis  can  be  tested  by  a 
variety  of  mental  measurements.  S.  A.  Courtis'  investigation  of 
the  arithmetical  abilities  of  the  children  in  the  schools  of  New 
York  City  will  be  a  good  begin- 
ning. He  measured  the  achieve- 
ments of  pupils  in  responding  to 
eight  tests,  which  were  believed 
to  give  a  fair  idea  of  the  pupil's 
capacity  for  solving  simple  arith- 
metical problems.  The  results 
were,  on  the  average,  similar  to 
the  result  he  got  in  a  certain 
eighth-grade  class,  whose  record 
is  shown  in  Fig.  9.  It  is  evident 
that  some  of  the  children  were 
good  in  arithmetic,  some  were 
poor  in  it;  the  bulk  of  them  were 
neither  good  nor  bad  but  half 
way  between,  or,  in  statistical 
language,  mediocre. 

The  literature  of  experimental 
psychology  and  anthropology  is 
crammed  with  such  examples  as 
the  above.  No  matter  what  trait 
of  the  individual  be  chosen,  re- 
sults are  analogous.  If  one  takes 
the  simplest  traits,  to  eliminate 
the  most  chances  for  confusion, 
one  finds  the  same  conditions  variation  in  ability 
every  time.    Whether  it  be  speed  Jn^dVTf^'S'n In  t Vgt 

in    marking  off   all    the    A's    in    a    class  m  a    New  York   City  school, 
.  .in  respect  to  their  ability  in  arithme- 

prmted    sheet    of    capitals,    or    m    tic.     There  are  wide  divergences  in 
..•         i     ■    i.1.        ii.         •  r         the  scores  they  made. 

puttmg  together  the  pieces  of  a 

puzzle,  or  in  giving  a  reaction  to  some  certain  stimulus,  or  in 
making  associations  between  ideas,  or  drawing  figures,  or  mem- 
ory for  various  things,  or  giving  the  opposites  of  words,  or 
discrimination  of  lifted  weights,  or  success  in  any  one  of  hun- 


No.ofchddrM 
makina 
Cftchtcora 

SCORE 

1 

m 
m 
lift 

im 
mm 

Inl 

fIMM 

M 

f. 

NO. 

17 

1 

16 

1 

15 

0 

14 

1 

13 

3 

1  1 

3 

1  1 

4 

10 

8 

9 

4 

8 

4 

7 

6 

6 

4 

5 

6 

4- 

2 

3 

0 

Z 

I 

78 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


dreds  of  other  mental  tests,  the  conclusion  is  the  same.    There 
are  wide  differences  in  the  abilities  of  individuals,  no  two  be- 
ing alike,  either  mentally  or  physically,  at  birth  or  any  time 
thereafter. 
Whenever  a  large  enough  number  of  individuals  is  tested,  these 


ORIGIN  OF  A  NORMAL  PROBABILITY  CURVE 
Fig.  io. — When  deviations  in  all  directions  are  equally  prob- 
able, as  in  the  case  of  shots  fired  at  a  target  by  an  expert 
marksman,  the  "frequencies"  will  arrange  themselves  in  the 
manner  shown  by  the  bullets  in  compartments  above.  A  line 
drawn  along  the  tops  of  these  columns  would  be  a  "normal 
probability  curve."    Diagram  by  C.  H.  Popenoe. 

differences  arrange  themselves  in  the  same  general  form.  It  is 
the  form  assumed  by  the  distribution  of  any  differences  that  are 
governed  absolutely  by  chance. 

Suppose  an  expert  marksman  shoots  a  thousand  times  at  the 
center  of  a  certain  picket  in  a  picket  fence,  and  that  there  is  no 


DIFFERENCES  AMONG  MEN  79 

wind  or  any  other  source  of  constant  error  that  would  distort 
his  aim.  In  the  long  run,  the  greatest  number  of  his  shots  would 
be  in  the  picket  aimed  at,  and  of  his  misses  there  would  be  just 
as  many  on  one  side  as  on  the  other,  just  as  many  above  as  below 
the  center.  Now  if  all  the  shots,  as  they  struck  the  fence,  could 
drop  into  a  box  below,  which  had  a  compartment  for  each  picket, 
it  would  be  found  at  the  end  of  his  practice  that  the  compart- 
ments were  filled  up  unequally,  most  bullets  being  in  that  repre- 
senting the  middle  picket  and  least  in  the  outside  ones.  The 
intermediate  compartments  would  have  intermediate  mmibers 
of  bullets.  The  whole  scheme  is  shown  in  Fig.  10.  If  a  line  be 
drawn  to  connect  the  tops  of  all  the  columns  of  bullets,  it  will 
make  a  rough  curve  or  graph,  which  represents  a  typical  chance 


-The   "Chance"    or    "Probability"    Form   of 
Distribution. 

distribution.  It  will  be  evident  to  anyone  that  the  distribution 
was  really  governed  by  "chance,"  i.  e.,  a  multiplicity  of  causes 
too  complex  to  permit  detailed  analysis.  The  imaginary  sharp- 
shooter was  an  expert,  and  he  was  trying  to  hit  the  same  spot 
with  each  shot.  The  deviation  from  the  center  is  bound  to  be 
the  same  on  all  sides. 

Now  suppose  a  series  of  measurements  of  a  thousand  children 
be  taken  in,  let  us  say,  the  ability  to  do  18  problems  in  subtrac- 
tion in  10  minutes.  A  few  of  them  finish  only  one  problem  in 
that  time;  a  few  more  do  two,  more  still  are  able  to  complete 
three,  and  so  on  up.  The  great  bulk  of  the  children  get  through 
from  8  to  12  problems  in  the  allotted  time;  a  few  finish  the  whole 
task.  Now  if  we  make  a  column  for  all  those  who  did  one 
problem,  another  column  beside  it  for  all  those  who  did  two,  and 
so  on  up  for  those  who  did  three,  four  and  on  to  eighteen,  a  line 
drawn  over  the  tops  of  the  columns  make  a  curve  like  the  above 
from  Thorndike. 


8o  APPLIED  EUGENICS      • 

Comparing  this  curve  with  the  one  formed  by  the  marks-, 
man's  spent  bullets,  one  can  not  help  being  struck  by  the  sim- 
ilarity. If  the  first  represented  a  distribution  governed  purely 
by  chance,  it  is  evident  that  the  children's  ability  seems  to  be 
distributed  in  accordance  with  a  similar  law. 

With  the  limited  number  of  categories  used  in  this  example,  it 
would  not  be  possible  to  get  a  smooth  curve,  but  only  a  kind  of 
step  pyramid.  With  an  increase  in  the  number  of  categories, 
the  steps  become  smaller.  With  a  hundred  problems  to  work 
out,  instead  of  i8,  the  curve  would  be  something  like  this: 


Fig.  12. — Probability  curve  with  increased  number  of  steps. 

And  with  an  infinite  number,  the  steps  would  disappear  al- 
together, leaving  a  perfectly  smooth,  flowing  line,  unmarred  by  a 
single  step  or  break.  It  would  be  an  absolutely  continuous 
distribution. 

If  then,  the  results  of  all  the  tests  that  hav^  been  made  on  all 
mental  traits  be  studied,  it  will  be  found  that  human  mental 
ability  as  shown  in  at  least  95%  of  all  the  traits  that  have  been 
measured,  is  distributed  throughout  the  race  in  various  degrees, 
in  accordance  with  the  law  of  chance,  and  that  if  one  could 
measure  all  the  members  of  the  species  and  plot  a  curve  for 
these  measurements,  in  any  trait,  he  would  get  this  smooth,  con- 
tinuous curve.  In  other  words,  human  beings  are  not  sharply 
divided  into  classes,  but  the  differences  between  them  shade  off 
into  each  other,  although  between  the  best  and  the  worst,  in  any 
respect,  there  is  a  great  gulf. 

If  this  statement  applies  to  simple  traits,  such  as  memory  for 
numbers,  it  must  also  apply  to  combinations  of  simple  traits  in 
complex  mental  processes.  For  practical  purposes,  we  are 
therefore  justified  in  saying  that  in  respect  of  any  mental  qual- 
ity,— ability,    industry,    efficiency,    persistence,    attentiveness, 


NORMAL  VARIABILITY  CURVE  FOLLOWING  LAW  OF  CHANCE 
Fig.  13. — The  above  photograph  (from  A.  F.  Blakeslee),  shows  beans  rolling  down  an  inclined 
plane  and  accumulating  in  compartments  at  the  base  which  are  closed  in  front  by  glass.  The 
exposure  was  long  enough  to  cause  the  moving  beans  to  appear  as  caterpillar-like  objects  hopping 
along  the  board.  Assuming  that  the  irregularity  of  shape  of  the  beans  is  such  that  each  may  make 
jumps  toward  the  right  or  toward  the  left,  in  rolling  down  the  board,  the  laws  of  chance  lead  to  the 
expectation  that  in  very  few  cases  will  these  jumps  all  be  in  the  same  direction,  as  is  demonstrated  by 
the  few  beans  collected  in  the  compartments  at  the  extreme  right  and  left.  Rather  the  beans  will 
tend  to  jump  in  both  right  and  left  directions,  the  most  probable  condition  being  that  in  which  the 
beans  make  an  equal  number  of  jumps  to  the  right  and  left,  as  is  shown  by  the  large  number  ac- 
cumulated in  the  central  compartment.  If  the  board  be  tilted  to  one  side,  the  curve  of  beans  would 
be  altered  by  this  one-sided  influence.  In  like  fashion  a  series  of  factors — either  of  environment  or 
of  heredity — if  acting  equally  in  both  favorable  and  unfavorable  directions,  will  cause  a  group  of 
men  to  form  a  similar  variability  curve,  when  classified  according  to  their  relative  height. 


DIFFERENCES  AMONG  MEN  8i 

neatness,  honesty,  anything  you  Hke, — in  any  large  group  of 
people,  such  as  the  white  inhabitants  of  the  United  States, 
some  individuals  will  be  found  who  show  the  character  in  ques- 
tion in  a  very  low  degree,  some  who  show  it  in  a  very  high  de- 
gree ;  and  there  will  be  found  every  possible  degree  in  between. 

The  consequences  of  this  for  race  progress  are  significant. 
Is  it  desired  to  eliminate  feeble-mindedness?  Then  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  there  is  no  sharp  distinction  between  feeble- 
mindedness and  the  normal  mind.  One  can  not  divide  sheep 
from  goats,  saying  "  A  is  feeble-minded.  B  is  normal.  C  is  fee- 
ble-minded. D  is  normal,"  and  so  on.  If  one  took  a  scale  of  a 
hundred  numbers,  letting  i  stand  for  an  idiot  and  loo  for  a 
genius,  one  would  find  individuals  corresponding  to  every  single 
number  on  the  scale.  The  only  course  possible  would  be  a  some- 
what arbitrary  one ;  say  to  consider  every  individual  correspond- 
ing to  a  grade  under  seven  as  feeble-minded.  It  would  have  to  be 
recognized  that  those  graded  eight  were  not  much  better  than 
those  graded  seven,  but  the  drawing  of  the  line  at  seven  would 
be  justified  on  the  ground. that  it  had  to  be  drawn  somewhere, 
and  seven  seemed  to  be  the  most  satisfactory  point. 

In  practice  of  course,  students  of  retardation  test  children 
by  standardized  scales.  Testing  a  hundred  lo-year-old  chil- 
dren, the  examiner  might  find  a  number  who  were  able  to 
do  only  those  tests  which  are  passed  by  a  normal  six-year- 
old  child.  He  might  properly  decide  to  put  all  who  thus 
showed  four  years  of  retardation,  in  the  class  of  feeble- 
minded; and  he  might  justifiably  decide  that  those  who 
tested  seven  years  (i.  e.,  three  years  mental  retardation) 
or  less  would,  for  the  present,  be  given  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt,  and  classed  among  the  possibily  normal.  Such  a  pro- 
cedure, in  deahng  with  intelligence,  is  necessary  and  justi- 
fiable, but  its  adoption  must  not  blind  students,  as  it  often 
does,  to  the  fact  that  the  distinction  made  is  an  arbitrary  one, 
and  that  there  is  no  more  a  hard  and  fast  line  of  demarcation 
between  imbeciles  and  normals  than  there  is  between  "rich 
men"  and  "poor  men." 

If  a  group  of  soldiers  be  measured  as  the  children  were  meas- 


82 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


3475 


9019 


1947 


1237 


526 


StX— 


4<J5t 


_363l 


3139 


207^ 


148^ 


680 


_M3 


118 


soil  S2SiS*5SS6S75SSS60  6l  62636*65  66  67  6$  69  TO  V  72  73  7*  IS  16  77    XaCK65 

Fig.  is. — Height  is  one  of  the  stock  examples  of  a  continuous  character — one  of 
which  all  grades  can  be  found.  As  will  be  seen  from  the  above  diagram,  every 
height  from  considerably  under  five  feet  to  considerably  over  six  feet  can  be  found 
in  the  army,  but  extreme  deviations  are  relatively  rare  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  deviation.  The  vertical  columns  represent  the  total  number  of  individuals  of  a 
given  height  in  inches.    From  Davenport. 

ured  for  arithmetical  ability,  their  height  will  be  distributed  in 
this  same  curve  of  probability.  Fig.  14  shows  the  cadets  of 
Connecticut  Agricultural  College;  it  is  obvious  that  a  line  drawn 


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DIFFERENCES  AMONG  MEN  .  83 

along  the  tops  of  the  files  would  again  make  the  step-pyramid 
shown  in  Figures  10,  11  and  13.  If  a  larger  number  were  taken, 
the  steps  would  disappear  and  give  place  to  a  smooth  curve; 
the  fact  is  well  shown  in  a  graph  for  the  heights  of  recruits  to  the 
American  Army  (Fig.  15). 

The  investigation  in  this  direction  need  not  be  pursued  any 
farther.  For  the  purpose  of  eugenics,  it  is  sufficient  to  recognize 
that  great  differences  exist  between  men,  and  women,  not  only  in 
respect  of  physical  traits,  but  equally  in  respect  of  mental  ability. 

This  conclusion  might  easily  have  been  reached  from  a  study 
of  the  facts  in  Chapter  I,  but  it  seemed  worth  while  to  take  time 
to  present  the  fact  in  a  more  concrete  form  as  the  result  of  actual 
measurements.  The  evidence  allows  no  doubt  about  the  exist- 
ence of  considerable  mental  and  physical  differences  between 
men. 

The  question  naturally  arises,  "What  is  the  cause  of  these 
differences? 

The  study  of  twins  showed  that  the  differences  could  not  be 
due  to  differences  in  training  or  home  surroundings.  If  the 
reader  will  think  back  over  the  facts  set  forth  in  the  first  chapter, 
he  will  see  clearly  that  the  fundamental  differences  in  men  can 
not  be  due  to  anything  that  happens  after  they  are  born;  and 
the  facts  presented  in  the  second  chapter  showed  that  these 
differences  can  not  be  due  in  an  important  degree  to  any  influ- 
ences acting  on  the  child  prior  to  birth. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  INHERITANCE  OF  MENTAL  CAPACITIES 

We  have  come  to  the  climax  of  the  eugenist's  preliminary 
argument;  if  the  main  differences  between  human  beings  are 
not  due  to  anything  in  the  environment  or  training,  either  of  this 
or  previous  generations,  there  can  be  but  one  explanation  for 
them. 

They  must  be  due  to  the  ancestry  of  the  individual — that  is, 
they  must  be  matters  of  heredity  in  the  ordinary  sense,  coupled 
with  the  fortuitous  variations  which  accompany  heredity 
throughout  the  organic  world. 

We  need  not  limit  ourselves,  however,  to  the  argument  by 
exclusion,  for  it  is  not  difficult  to  present  direct  evidence  that 
the  differences  between  men  are  actually  inherited  by  children 
from  parents.  The  problem,  formally  stated,  is  to  measure  the 
amount  by  which  the  likeness  of  individuals  of  like  ancestry 
surpasses  the  likeness  of  individuals  of  different  ancestry.  After 
subtraction  of  the  necessary  amount  for  the  greater  likeness  in 
training,  that  the  individuals  of  like  ancestry  will  have,  what- 
ever amount  is  left  will  necessarily  represent  the  actual  inherit- 
ance of  the  child  from  its  ancestors — ^parents,  grandparents,  and 
so  on. 

Obviously,  the  subtraction  for  environmental  effects  is  the 
point  at  which  a  mistake  is  most  probable.  We  may  safely  start, 
therefore,  with  a  problem  in  which  no  subtraction  whatever 
need  be  made  for  this  cause.  Eye  color  is  a  stock  example,  and 
a  good  one,  for  it  is  not  conceivable  that  home  environment  or 
training  would  cause  a  change  in  the  color  of  brothers '  eyes. 

The  correlation  ^  between  brothers,  or  sisters,  or  brothers  and 

>It  will  be  recalled  that  the  coeflScient  of  correlation  measures  the,  resemblance 
between  two  variables  on  a  scale  between  o  and  — i  or  -|-i.  If  the  correlation  is 
zero,  there  is  no  constant  relation;  if  it  is  unity,  any  change  in  one  must  result  in  a 

84 


THE  INHERITANCE  OF  MENTAL  CAPACITIES    85 

sisters — briefly,  the  fraternal  resemblance — for  eye-color  was 
found  by  Karl  Pearson,  using  the  method  described  in  Chapter  I, 
to  be  .52.  We  are  in  no  danger  of  contradiction  if  we  state  with 
positiveness  that  this  figure  represents  the  influence  of  ancestry, 
or  direct  inheritance,  in  respect  to  this  particular  trait. 

Suppose  the  resemblance  between  brothers  be  measured  for 
stature — it  is  .51;  for  cephalic  index,  that  is,  the  ratio  of  width 
of  skull  to  length  of  skull — it  is  .49;  for  hair  color — it  is  .59.  In 
all  of  these  points,  it  will  be  admitted  that  no  home  training, 
or  any  other  influence  except  heredity,  can  conceivably  play 
an  important  part.  We  could  go  on  with  a  long  list  of  such 
measurements,  which  biometrists  have  made;  and  if  they  were 
all  summed  up  it  would  be  found  that  the  fraternal  correlation 
in  these  traits  as  to  the  heritability  of  which  there  can  be 
no  dispute,  is  about  .52.  Here  is  a  good  measure,  albeit  a 
technical  one,  of  the  influence  of  heredity  from  the  near  ancestry. 
It  is  possible,  too,  to  measure  the  direct  correlation  between  a 
trait  in  parent  and  the  same  trait  in  offspring;  the  average  of 
many  cases  where  only  heredity  can  be  thought  to  have  had 
any  effect  in  producing  the  result,  is  .49.  By  the  two  methods  of 
measurement,  therefore,  quite  comparable  results  are  obtained. 

So  much  work  has  been  done  in  this  subject  that  we  have  no 
hesitation  in  affirming  .5  to  represent  approximately  the  average 
intensity  of  heredity  for  physical  characters  in  man.  If  any 
well-marked  physical  character  be  measured,  in  which  training 
and  environment  can  not  be  assumed  to  have  had  any  part, 
it  will  be  found,  in  a  large  enough  number  of  subjects,  that  the  re- 
semblance, measured  on  a  scale  from  o  to  i,  is  just  about  one- 
half  of  unity.  Of  course,  perfect  identity  with  the  parents  is 
not  to  be  expected,  because  the  child  must  inherit  from  both 
parents,  who  in  turn  each  inherited  from  two  parents,  and  so  on. 

So  far,  it  may  be  said,  we  have  had  plain  sailing  because  we 
have  carefully  chosen  traits  in  which  we  were  not  obliged  to  make 

determinate  change  in  the  other;  if  it  is  0.5,  it  means  that  when  one  of  the  variables 
deviates  from  the  mean  of  its  class  by  a  given  amount,  the  other  variable  will  devi- 
ate from  the  mean  of  its  class  by  50%  of  that  amount  (each  deviation  being  meas- 
ured in  terms  of  the  variability  of  its  own  class,  in  order  that  they  may  be  properly 
comparable.) 


/ 


86  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

any  subtraction  whatever  for  the  influence  of  training.  But  it 
is  evident  that  not  all  traits  fall  in  that  class. 

This  is  the  point  at  which  the  inheritance  of  mental  traits 
has  been  most  often  questioned.  Probably  no  one  will  care  to 
dispute  the  inheritance  of  such  physical  traits  as  eye-color. 
But  in  considering  the  mind,  a  certain  school  of  popular  pseudo- 
psychological  writers  question  the  reality  of  mental  inheritance, 
and  allege  that  the  proofs  which  the  geneticist  offers  are  worth- 
less because  they  do  not  make  account  of  the  similarity  in  en- 
vironment or  training.  Of  course,  it  is  admitted  that  some  sort 
of  a  mental  groundwork  must  be  inherited,  but  extremists 
allege  that  this  is  little  more  than  a  clean  slate  on  which  the  en- 
vironment, particularly  during  the  early  years  of  childhood, 
writes  its  autograph. 

We  must  grant  that  the  analysis  of  the  inheritance  of  mental 
traits  is  proceeding  slowly.  This  is  not  the  fault  of  the  geneticist, 
but  rather  of  the  psychologist,  who  has  not  yet  been  able  to  fur- 
nish the  geneticist  with  the  description  of  definite  traits  of  such 
a  character  as  to  make  possible  the  exhaustive  analysis  of  their 
individual  inheritance.  That  department  of  psychology  is  only 
now  being  formed. 

We  might  even  admit  that  no  inherited  "unit  character" 
in  the  mind  has  yet  been  isolated;  but  it  would  be  a  great 
mistake  to  assume  from  this  admission  that  proof  of  the  in- 
heritance of  mental  qualities,  in  general,  is  lacking. 

The  psychologists  and  educators  who  think  so  appear  either 
to  be  swayed  by  metaphysical  views  of  the  mind,  or  else  to  be- 
lieve that  resemblance  between  parent  and  offspring  is  the  only 
evidence  of  inheritance  that  can  be  offered.  The  father  dis- 
likes cheese,  the  son  dislikes  cheese.  "Aha,  you  think  that 
that  is  the  inheritance  of  a  dislike  for  cheese,"  cries  the 
critic,  "but  we  will  teach  you  better."  An  interesting  example 
of  this  sort  of  teaching  is  furnished  by  Boris  Sidis,  whose  feehngs 
are  outraged  because  geneticists  have  represented  that  some 
forms  of  insanity  are  hereditary.  He  declaims  for  several 
pages  ^  in  this  fashion: 

^  Sidis,  Boris,  M.A.,  Ph.D.,  M.D.,  "Neurosis  and  Eugenics,"  Medical  Review  oj 


THE  INHERITANCE  OF  MENTAL  CAPACITIES    87 

"The  so-called  scientific  method  of  the  eugenists  is  radically 
faulty,  in  spite  of  the  rich  display  of  colored  plates,  stained 
tables,  glittering  biological  speculations,  brilliant  mathematical 
formulas  and  compHcated  statistical  calculations.  The  eu- 
genists pile  Ossa  on  Pelion  of  facts  by  the  simple  method  of 
enumeration  which  Bacon  and  the  thinkers  coming  after  him 
have  long  ago  condemned  as  puerile  and  futile.  From  the  sav- 
age's belief  in  sympathetic,  imitative  magic  with  its  consequent 
superstitions,  omens,  and  taboos  down  to  the  articles  of  faith 
and  dogmas  of  the  eugenists  we  find  the  same  faulty,  primitive 
thought,  guided  by  the  puerile,  imbecile  method  of  simple 
enumeration,  and  controlled  by  the  wisdom  of  the  logical  post 
hoc,  ergo  propter  hoc." 

Now  if  resemblance  between  parent  and  offspring  were,  as 
Dr.  Sidis  supposes,  the  only  evidence  of  inheritance  of  mental 
traits  which  the  eugenist  can  produce,  his  case  would  indeed  be 
weak.  And  it  is  perfectly  true  that  "evidence"  of  this  kind  has 
sometimes  been  advanced  as  sufficient  by  geneticists  who  should 
have  known  better.  But  this  is  not  the  real  evidence  which 
genetics  offers.  The  evidence  is  of  numerous  kinds,  and  several 
lines  might  be  destroyed  without  impairing  the  validity  of  the 
remainder.  It  is  impossible  to  review  the  whole  body  of  evi- 
dence here,  but  some  of  the  various  kinds  may  be  indicated, 
and  samples  given,  even  though  this  involves  the  necessity  of 
repeating  some  things  we  have  said  in  earlier  chapters.  The 
reader  will  then  be  able  to  form  his  own  opinion  as  to  whether 
the  geneticists'  proofs  or  the  mere  assurances  of  those  who 
have  not  studied  the  subject  are  the  more  weighty. 

I.  The  analogy  from  breeding  experiments.  Tame  rats,  for 
instance,  are  very  docile;  their  offspring  can  be  handled  with- 
out a  bit  of  trouble.  The  wild  rat,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  at 
all  docile. 

W.  E.  Castle,  of  Harvard  University,  writes:  ^  "We  have 

Reviews,  Vol.  XXI,  No.  lo,  pp.  587-sg4,  New  York,  October,  1915.    A  psychologist 
who  writes  of  "some  miraculous  germ-plasm  (chromatin)  with  wonderful  dominant 
'units'  (Chromosomes)"  is  hardly  a  competent  critic  of  the  facts  of  heredity. 
*  In  a  letter  to  the  Journal  of  Heredity,  under  date  of  August  4,  1916. 


88  .  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

repeatedly  mated  tame  female  rats  with  wild  males,  the  mothers 
being  removed  to  isolated  cages  before  the  birth  of  the  young. 
These  young  which  had  never  seen  or  been  near  their  father 
were  very  wild  in  disposition  in  every  case.  The  observations 
of  Yerkes  on  such  rats  raised  by  us  indicates  that  their  wildness 
was  not  quite  as  extreme  as  that  of  the  pure  wild  rat  but  closely 
approached  it." 

Who  can  suggest  any  plausible  explanation  of  their  conduct, 
save  that  they  inherited  a  certain  temperament  from  their 
sire?  Yet  the  inheritance  of  temperament  is  one  of  the  things 
which  certain  psychologists  most  "view  with  alarm."  If  it  is 
proved  in  other  animals,  can  it  be  considered  wholly  impossible 
in  man? 

2.  The  segregation  of  mental  traits.  When  an  insane,  or 
epileptic,  or  feeble-minded  person  mates  with  a  normal  indi- 
vidual, in  whose  family  no  taint  is  found,  the  offspring  (generally 
speaking)  will  be  mentally  sound,  even  though  one  parent  is 
not.  On  the  other  hand,  if  two  people  from  tainted  stocks 
marry,  although  neither  one  may  be  personally  defective,  part 
of  their  offspring  will  be  affected. 

This  production  of  sound  children  from  an  unsound  parent, 
in  the  first  case,  and  unsound  children  from  two  apparently 
sound  parents  in  the  second  case,  is  exactly  the  opposite  of 
what  one  would  expect  if  the  child  gets  his  unsoundness  merely 
by  imitation  or  "contagion."  The  difference  can  not  reasonably 
be  explained  by  any  difference  in  environment  or  external  stimuli. 
Heredity  offers  a  satisfactory  explanation,  for  some  forms  of 
feeble-mindedness  and  epilepsy,  and  some  of  the  diseases  known 
as  insanity,  behave  as  recessives  and  segregate  in  just  the  way 
mentioned.  There  are  abundant  analogies  in  the  inheritance 
of  other  traits  in  man,  lower  animals  and  plants,  that  behave  in 
exactly  the  same  manner. 

If  mental  defects  are  inherited,  then  it  is  worth  while  in- 
vestigating whether  mental  excellencies  may  not  also  be. 

5.  The  persistence  of  like  qtialities  regardless  of  difference  in 
environment.  Any  parent  with  open  eyes  must  see  this  in  his 
own  children — must  see  that  they  retained  the  inherited  traits 


THE  INHERITANCE  OF  MENTAL  CAPACITIES    89 

even  when  they  left  home  and  lived  under  entirely  different  sur- 
roundings. But  the  histories  of  twins  furnish  the  most  graphic 
evidence.  Galton,  who  collected  detailed  histories  of  thirty- 
five  pairs  of  twins  who  were  closely  alike  at  birth,  and  examined 
their  history  in  after  years,  writes:  ^  "In  some  cases  the  re- 
semblance of  body  and  mind  had  continued  unaltered  up  to 
old  age,  notwithstanding  very  different  conditions  of  life;" 
in  other  cases  where  some  dissimilarity  developed,  it  could  be 
traced  to  the  influence  of  an  illness.  Making  due  allowance 
for  the  influence  of  illness,  yet  "instances  do  exist  of  an  ap- 
parently thorough  similarity  of  nature,  in  which  such  differences 
of  external  circumstances  as  may  be  consistent  with  the  ordinary 
conditions  of  the  same  social  rank  and  country  do  not  create 
dissimilarity.  Positive  evidence,  such  as  this,  can  not  be  out- 
weighed by  any  amount  of  negative  evidence." 

Frederick  Adams  Woods  has  brought  forward  ^  a  piece  of 
more  exact  evidence  under  this  head.  It  is  known  from  many 
quantitative  studies  that  in  physical  heredity,  the  influence 
of  the  paternal  grandparents  and  the  influence  of  the  maternal 
grandparents  is  equal;  on  the  average  one  pair  will  contribute 
no  more  to  the  grandchildren  than  the  other.  If  mental  quali- 
ties are  due  rather  to  early  surroundings  than  to  actual  in- 
heritance, this  equality  of  grandparental  influence  is  incredible 
in  the  royal  families  where  Dr.  Woods  got  his  material;  for 
the  grandchild  has  been  brought  up  at  the  court  of  the  paternal 
grandfather,  where  he  ought  to  have  gotten  all  his  "acquire- 
ments," and  has  perhaps  never  even  seen  his  maternal  grand- 
parents, who  therefore  could  not  be  expected  to  impress  their 
mental  peculiarities  on  him  by  "contagion."  When  Dr.  Woods 
actually  measured  the  extent  of  resemblance  to  the  two  sets  of 
grandparents,  for  mental  and  moral  quaHties,  he  found  it  to 
be  the  same  in  each  case;  as  is  inevitable  if  they  are  inherited, 
but  as  is  incomprehensible  if  heredity  is  not  largely  responsible 
for  one's  mental  make-up. 

4.  Persistence  of  unlike  qualities  regardless  of  sameness  in  the 

^  Galton,  Francis,  Inquiries  into  Human  Faculty,  p.  167,  London,  1907. 
*  Woods,  Frederick  Adams,  Heredity  in  Royally,  New  York,  igo6. 


90  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

environment.  This  is  the  converse  of  the  preceding  proposition, 
but  even  more  convincing.  In  the  last  paragraph  but  one,  we 
mentioned  Galton's  study  (cited  at  some  length  in  our  Chap- 
ter I)  of  "identical"  twins,  who  are  so  much  alike  at  birth  for 
the  very  good  reason  that  they  have  identical  heredity.  This 
heredity  was  found  to  be  not  modified,  either  in  the  body  or 
the  mind,  by  ordinary  differences  of  training  and  environment. 
Some  of  Galton's  histories  ^  of  ordinary,  non-identical  twins 
were  also  given  in  Chapter  I;  two  more  follow: 

One  parent  says:  "They  have  been  treated  exactly  alike; 
both  were  brought  up  by  hand;  they  have  been  under  the  same 
nurse  and  governess  from  their  birth,  and  they  are  very  fond 
of  each  other.  Their  increasing  dissimilarity  must  be  ascribed 
to  a  natural  difference  of  mind  and  character,  as  there  has  been 
nothing  in  their  treatment  to  account  for  it." 

Another  writes:  "This  case  is,  I  should  think,  somewhat  re- 
markable for  dissimilarity  in  physique  as  well  as  for  strong  con- 
trast in  character.  They  have  been  unlike  in  mind  and  body 
throughout  their  lives.  Both  were  reared  in  a  country  house  and 
both  were  at  the  same  schools  until  the  age  of  i6." 

In  the  face  of  such  examples,  can  anyone  maintain  that  dif- 
ferences in  mental  make-up  are  wholly  due  to  different  in- 
fluences during  childhood,  and  not  at  all  to  differences  in  germ- 
inal make-up?  It  is  not  necessary  to  depend,  under  this  head, 
on  mere  descriptions,  for  accurate  measurements  are  available 
to  demonstrate  the  point.  If  the  environment  creates  the 
mental  nature,  then  ordinary  brothers,  not  more  than  four  or 
five  years  apart  in  age,  ought  to  be  about  as  closely  similar  to 
each  other  as  identical  twins  are  to  each  other;  for  the  family 
influences  in  each  case  are  practically  the  same.  Professor 
Thomdike,  by  careful  mental  tests,  showed  ^   that  this  is  not 

^  Op.  cil.,  pp.  170-171. 

*  Thomdike,  E.  L.,  "Measurements  of  Twins,"  Arch,  of  Philos.,  Psych,  and  Set. 
Methods,  No.  i,  New  York,  1905;  summarized  in  his  Educational  Psychology,  Vol.  Ill, 
pp.  247-251,  New  York,  1914.  Measured  on  a  scale  where  1=  identity,  he  found 
that  twins  showed  a  resemblance  to  each  other  of  about  .75,  while  ordinar>'  brothers 
of  about  the  same  age  resembled  each  other  to  the  extent  of  about  .50  only.  The 
resemblance  was  approximately  the  same  in  both  phydcal  and  mental  traits. 


THE  INHERITANCE  OF  MENTAL  CAPACITIES    91 

true.  The  ordinary  brothers  come  from  different  egg-cells, 
and,  as  is  known  from  studies  on  lower  animals,  they  do  not 
get  exactly  the  same  inheritance  from  their  parents;  they  show, 
therefore,  considerable  differences  in  their  psychic  natures. 
Real  identical  twins,  being  two  halves  of  the  same  egg-cell, 
halve  the  same  heredity,  and  their  natures  are  therefore  much 
more  nearly  identical. 

Again,  if  the  mind  is  molded  during  the  "plastic  years  of 
childhood,"  children  ought  to  become  more  alike,  the  longer 
they  are  together.  Twins  who  were  unlike  at  birth  ought  to 
resemble  each  other  more  closely  at  14  than  they  did  at  9,  since 
they  have  been  for  five  additional  years  subjected  to  this  sup- 
posedly potent  but  very  mystical  "molding  force."  Here  again 
Professor  Thorndike's  exact  measurements  explode  the  fallacy. 
They  are  actually,  measurably,  less  alike  at  the  older  age;  their 
inborn  natures  are  developing  along  predestined  lines,  with  little 
regard  to  the  identity  of  their  surroundings.  Heredity  accounts 
easily  for  these  facts,  but  they  cannot  be  squared  with  the  idea 
that  mental  differences  are  the  products  solely  of  early  training. 

5.  Differential  rates  of  increase  in  qualities  subject  to  much 
training.  If  the  mind  is  formed  by  training,  then  brothers 
ought  to  be  more  alike  in  qualities  which  have  been  subject  to 
little  or  no  training.  Professor  Thorndike's  measiu-ements  on 
this  point  show  the  reverse  to  be  true.  The  likeness  of  various 
traits  is  determined  by  heredity,  and  brothers  may  be  more 
unlike  in  traits  which  have  been  subjected  to  a  large  and  equal 
amount  of  training.  Twins  were  found  to  be  less  alike  in  their 
ability  at  addition  and  multiplication,  in  which  the  schools  had 
been  training  them  for  some  years,  than  they  were  in  ability 
to  mark  off  the  A's  on  a  printed  sheet,  or  to  write  the  opposites 
to  a  list  of  words — feats  which  they  had  probably  never  before 
tried  to  do. 

This  same  proposition  may  be  put  on  a  broader  basis. ^  "In 
so  far  as  the  differences  in  achievement  found  amongst  a  group 
of  men  are  due  to  the  differences  in  the  quantity  and  quality 

^  The  quotations  in  this  and  the  following  paragraph  are  from  Thorndike's  Educa- 
tional Psychology,  pp.  304-305,  Vol.  III. 


92  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

of  training  which  they  had  had  in  the  function  in  question, 
the  provision  of  equal  amounts  of  the  same  sort  of  training  for 
all  individuals  in  the  group  should  act  to  reduce  the  differences." 
"If  the  addition  of  equal  amounts  of  practice  does  not  reduce 
the  differences  found  amongst  men,  those  differences  can  not  well 
be  explained  to  any  large  extent  by  supposing  them  to  have 
been  due  to  corresponding  differences  in  amount  of  previous 
practice.  If,  that  is,  inequalities  in  achievement  are  not  re- 
duced by  equahzing  practice,  they  can  not  well  have  been  caused 
by  inequalities  in  previous  practice.  If  differences  in  oppor- 
tunity cause  the  differences  men  display,  making  opportunity 
more  nearly  equal  for  all,  by  adding  equal  amounts  to  it  in  each 
case  should  make  the  differences  less. 

"The  facts  found  are  rather  startling.  Equalizing  practice 
seems  to  increase  differences.  The  superior  man  seems  to  have 
got  his  present  superiority  by  his  own  nature  rather  than  by 
superior  advantages  of  the  past,  since,  during  a  period  of  equal 
advantage  for  all,  he  increases  his  lead."  This  point  has  been 
tested  by  such  simple  devices  as  mental  multiplication,  addi- 
tion, marking  A's  on  a  printed  sheet  of  capitals  and  the  like; 
all  the  contestants  made  some  gain  in  efficiency,  but  those  who 
were  superior  at  the  start  were  proportionately  farther  ahead 
than  ever  at  the  end.  This  is  what  the  geneticist  would  expect, 
but  fits  very  ill  with  some  popular  pseudo-science  which  denies 
that  any  child  is  mentally  limited  by  nature. 

6.  Direct  measurement  of  the  amount  of  resemblance  of  mental 
traits  in  brothers  and  sisters.  It  is  manifestly  impossible  to 
assume  that  early  training,  or  parental  behavior,  or  anything 
of  the  sort,  can  have  influenced  very  markedly  the  child's  eye 
color,  or  the  length  of  his  forearm,  or  the  ratio  of  the  breadth  of 
his  head  to  its  length.  A  measure  of  the  amount  of  resemblance 
between  two  brothers  in  such  traits  may  very  confidently  be 
said  to  represent  the  influence  of  heredity;  one  can  feel  no 
doubt  that  the  child  inherits  his  eye-color  and  other  physical 
traits  of  that  kind  from  his  parents.  It  will  be  recalled  that  the 
resemblance,  measured  on  a  scale  from  o  to  i,  has  been  found 
to  be  about  0.5. 


THE  INHERITANCE  OF  MENTAL  CAPACITIES     93 

Karl  Pearson  measured  the  resemblance  between  brothers 
and  sisters  in  mental  traits — for  example,  temper,  conscientious- 
ness, introspection,  vivacity — and  found  it  on  the  average  to 
have  the  same  intensity — that  is,  about  0.5.  Starch  gets  similar 
results  in  studying  school  grades. 

Professor  Pearson  writes:  ^ 

"It  has  been  suggested  that  this  resemblance  in  the  psy- 
chological characters  is  compounded  of  two  factors,  inheritance 
on  the  one  hand  and  training  and  environment  on  the  other. 
If  so,  one  must  admit  that  inheritance  and  environment  make 
up  the  resemblance  in  the  physical  characters.  Now  these 
two  sorts  of  resemblance  being  of  the  same  intensity,  either  the 
environmental  influence  is  the  same  in  both  cases  or  it  is  not. 
If  it  is  the  same,  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  in- 
sensible, for  it  can  not  influence  eye-color.  If  it  is  not  the  same, 
then  it  would  be  a  most  marvelous  thing  that  with  varying 
degrees  of  inheritance,  some  mysterious  force  always  modifies 
the  extent  of  home  influence,  until  the  resemblance  of  brothers 
and  sisters  is  brought  sensibly  up  to  the  same  intensity !  Occam's 
razor  ^  will  enable  us  at  once  to  cut  off  such  a  theory.  We  are 
forced,  I  think,  literally  forced,  to  the  general  conclusion  that 
the  physical  and  psychical  characters  in  man  are  inherited  within 
broad  lines  in  the  same  manner,  and  with  approximate  in- 
tensity. The  average  parental  influence  is  in  itself  largely  a 
result  of  the  heritage  of  the  stock  and  not  an  extraneous  and 
additional  factor  causing  the  resemblance  between  children 
from  the  same  home." 

A  paragraph  from  Edgar  Schuster  ^  may  appropriately  be 
added.  "After  considering  the  published  evidence  a  word  must 
be  said  of  facts  which  most  people  may  collect  for  themselves. 
They  are  diflacult  to  record,  but  are  perhaps  more  convincing 
than  any  quantity  of  statistics.  If  one  knows  well  several 
members  of  a  family,  one  is  bound  to  see  in  them  likenesses  with 

^  Biomelrika,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  156. 

^  "  William  of  Occam's  Razor"  is  the  canon  of  logic  which  declares  that  il  is  unwise 
to  seek  for  several  causes  of  an  effect,  if  a  single  cause  is  adequate  to  account  for  it 
'  Schuster,  Edgar,  Eugenics,  pp.  150—163,  London,  1913. 


94  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

regard  to  mental  traits,  both  large  and  small,  which  may  some- 
times be  accounted  for  by  example  on  the  one  hand  or  uncon- 
scious imitation  on  the  other,  but  are  often  quite  inexplicable 
on  any  other  theory  than  heredity.  It  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand how  the  inheritance  of  mental  capacity  can  be  denied  by 
those  whose  eyes  are  open  and  whose  minds  are  open  too." 

Strictly  speaking,  it  is  of  course  true  that  man  inherits  noth- 
ing more  than  the  capacity  of  making  mental  acquirements. 
But  this  general  capacity  is  made  up  of  many  separate  capaci- 
ties, all  of  these  capacities  are  variable,  and  the  variations  are 
inherited.  Such  seems  to  us  to  be  the  unmistakable  verdict 
of  the  evidence. 

Our  conclusions  as  to  the  inheritance  of  all  sorts  of  mental 
capacity  are  not  based  on  the  mere  presence  of  the  same  trait 
in  parent  and  child.  As  the  psychological  analysis  of  individual 
traits  proceeds,  it  will  be  possible  to  proceed  further  with  the 
study  of  the  inheritance  of  these  traits.  Some  work  has  been 
done  on  spelling,  which  is  particularly  interesting  because 
most  people,  without  reflection,  would  take  it  for  granted  that 
a  child's  spelling  ability  depends  almost  wholly  on  his  training. 
Professor  Thomdike's  exposition  ^  of  the  investigation  is  as 
follows: 

"E.  L.  Earle  ('03)  measured  the  spelling  abilities  of  some 
800  children  in  the  St.  Xavier  school  in  New  York  by  careful 
tests.  As  the  children  in  this  school  commonly  enter  at  a  very 
early  age,  and  as  the  staff  and  methods  of  teaching  remain 
very  constant,  we  have  in  the  case  of  the  180  pairs  of  brothers 
and  sisters  included  in  the  600  children  closely  similar  school 
training.  Mr.  Earle  measured  the  ability  of  any  individual  by 
his  deviation  from  the  average  for  his  grade  and  sex,  and  found 
the  coefficient  of  correlation  between  children  of  the  same 
family  to  be  .50.  That  is,  any  individual  is  on  the  average  50% 
as  much  above  or  below  the  average  for  his  age  and  sex  as  his 
brother  or  sister. 

"Similarities  of  home  training  might  account  for  this,  but 
any  one  experienced  in  teaching  will  hesitate  to  attribute  much 

*  Educational  Psychology  (1914),  Vol.  Ill,  p.  235. 


THE  INHERITANCE  OF  MENTAL  CAPACITIES    95 

efficacy  to  such  similarities.  Bad  spellers  remain  bad  spellers 
though  their  teachers  change.  Moreover,  Dr.  J.  M.  Rice  in 
his  exhaustive  study  of  spelling  ability  ('97)  found  little  or  no 
relationship  between  good  spelling  and  any  one  of  the  popular 
methods,  and  Uttle  or  none  between  poor  spelling  and  foreign 
parentage.  Comman's  more  careful  study  of  spelling  ('07) 
supports  the  view  that  ability  to  spell  is  little  influenced  by 
such  differences  in  school  or  home  training  as  commonly  exist." 

This  is  a  very  clear-cut  case  of  a  definite  intellectual  ability, 
differences  in  which  might  be  supposed  to  be  due  almost  wholly 
to  the  child's  training,  but  which  seem,  on  investigation,  to  be 
largely  due  to  heredity. 

The  problem  may  be  examined  in  still  greater  detail.  Does  a 
man  merely  inherit  manual  skill,  let  us  say,  or  does  he  inherit 
the  precise  kind  of  manual  skill  needed  to  make  a  surgeon  but 
not  the  kind  that  would  be  useful  to  a  watchmaker?  Is  a  man 
bom  merely  with  a  generalized  "artistic"  ability,  or  is  it  one 
adapted  solely  for,  let  us  say,  music;  or  further,  is  it  adapted 
solely  for  violin  playing,  not  for  the  piano? 

Galton,  in  his  pioneer  studies,  sought  for  data  on  this  ques- 
tion. In  regard  to  English  judges,  he  wTote:  "Do  the  judges 
often  have  sons  who  succeed  in  the  same  career,  where  success 
would  have  been  impossible  if  they  had  not  been  gifted  with 
the  special  qualities  of  their  fathers?  Out  of  the  286  judges, 
more  than  one  in  every  nine  of  them  have  been  either  father,  son 
or  brother  to  another  judge,  and  the  other  high  legal  relation- 
ships have  been  even  more  numerous.  There  can  not,  then, 
remain  a  doubt  but  that  the  peculiar  type  of  ability  that  is 
necessary  to  a  judge  is  often  transmitted  by  descent." 

Unfortunately,  we  can  not  feel  quite  as  free  from  doubt  on 
the  point  as  Galton  did.  The  judicial  mind,  if  that  be  the  main 
qualification  for  a  judge,  might  be  inherited,  or  it  might  be  the 
result  of  training.     Such  a  case,  standing  alone,  is  inconclusive. 

Galton  similarly  showed  that  the  sons  of  statesmen  tended 
to  be  statesmen,  and  that  the  same  was  true  in  families  of  great 
commanders,  literary  men,  poets  and  divines.  In  his  list  of 
eminent  painters,  all  the  relatives  mentioned  are  painters  save 


96  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

four,  two  of  whom  were  gifted  in  sculpture,  one  in  music  and 
one  in  embroidery.  As  to  musicians,  Mendelssohn  and  Meyer- 
beer are  the  only  ones  in  his  list  whose  eminent  kinsmen  achieved 
their  success  in  other  careers  than  music. 

Havelock  Ellis,  who  likewise  studied  British  men  of  genius, 
throws  additional  light  on  the  subject.  "Painters  and  sculp- 
tors," he  found,  "constitute  a  group  which  appears  to  be  of  very 
distinct  interest  from  the  point  of  view  of  occupational  heredity. 
In  social  origin,  it  may  be  noted,  the  group  differs  strikingly  in 
constitution  from  the  general  body  of  men  of  genius  in  which  the 
upper  class  is  almost  or  quite  predominant.  Of  63  painters  and 
sculptors  of  definitely  known  origin,  only  two  can  be  placed  in 
the  aristocratic  division.  Of  the  remainder  7  are  the  sons  of 
artists,  22  the  sons  of  craftsmen,  leaving  only  32  for  all  other 
occupations,  which  are  mainly  of  lower  middle  class  character, 
and  in  many  cases  trades  that  are  very  closely  allied  to  crafts. 
Even,  however,  when  we  omit  the  trades  as  well  as  the  cases  in 
which  the  fathers  were  artists,  we  find  a  very  notable  pre- 
dominance of  craftsmen  in  the  parentage  of  painters,  to  such  an 
extent  indeed  that  while  craftsmen  only  constitute  9.2%  among 
the  fathers  of  our  eminent  persons  generally,  they  constitute 
nearly  35%  among  the  fathers  of  the  painters  and  sculptors. 
It  is  dif&cult  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  there  is  a  real  connec- 
tion between  the  father's  aptitude  for  craftsmanship  and  the 
son's  aptitude  for  art. 

"To  suppose  that  environment  adequately  accounts  for  this 
relationship  is  an  inadmissible  theory.  The  association  between 
the  craft  of  builder,  carpenter,  tanner,  jeweller,  watchmaker, 
woodcarver,  ropemaker,  etc.,  and  the  painter's  art  is  small  at 
best,  and  in  most  cases  is  non-existent." 

Arreat,  investigating  the  heredity  of  200  eminent  European 
painters,  reached  results  similar  to  those  of  ElUs,  according  to 
the  latter's  citation. 

Arithmetical  ability  seems  similarly  to  be  subdivided,  accord- 
ing to  Miss  Cobb.^    She  made  measurements  of  the  efl5ciency 

'  Cobb,  Margaret  V.,  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology,  viii,  pp.  1-20,  Jan., 
1917. 


THE  INHERITANCE  OF  MENTAL  CAPACITIES    97 

with  which  children  and  their  parents  could  do  problems  in 
addition,  subtraction,  multiplication  and  division,  and  could 
copy  a  column  of  figures.  "The  measurements  made,"  she 
writes,  "show  that  if,  for  instance,  a  child  is  much  quicker  than 
the  average  in  subtraction,  but  not  in  addition,  multiplication 
or  division,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  one  at  least  of  his  parents 
shows  a  like  trait;  or  if  he  falls  below  the  average  in  subtraction 
and  multiplication,  and  exceeds  it  in  addition  and  division,  again 
the  same  will  hold  true  of  at  least  one  of  his  parents."  These 
various  kinds  of  arithmetic  appear  to  be  due  to  different  func- 
tions of  the  brain,  and  are  therefore  probably  inherited  inde- 
pendently, if  they  are  inherited  at  all. 

To  assume  that  the  resemblance  between  parent  and  offspring 
in  arithmetical  ability  is  due  to  association,  training  and  imita- 
tion is  not  plausible.  If  this  were  the  case,  a  class  of  children 
ought  to  come  to  resemble  their  teacher,  but  they  do  not.  More- 
over, the  child  sometimes  resembles  more  closely  the  parent 
with  whom  he  has  been  less  associated  in  daily  life. 

From  such  data  as  these,  we  conclude  that  mental  inheritance 
is  considerably  specialized.  This  conclusion  is  in  accord  with 
Burris'  finding  (cited  by  Thorndike)  that  the  ability  to  do  well 
in  some  one  high  school  study  is  nearly  or  quite  as  much  due  to 
ancestry  as  is  the  ability  to  do  well  in  the  course  as  a  whole. 

To  sum  up,  we  have  reason  to  believe  not  only  that  one's 
mental  character  is  due  largely  to  heredity,  but  that  the  details 
of  it  may  be  equally  due  to  heredity,  in  the  sense  that  for  any 
particular  trait  or  complex  in  the  child  there  is  likely  to  be 
found  a  similar  trait  or  complex  in  the  ancestry.  Such  a  con- 
clusion should  not  be  pushed  to  the  point  of  assuming  inheritance 
of  all  sorts  of  dispositions  that  might  be  due  to  early  training;  on 
the  other  hand,  a  survey  of  the  whole  field  would  probably 
justify  us  in  concluding  that  any  given  trait  is  more  likely  than 
not  to  be  inherited.  The  effect  of  training  in  the  formation  of 
the  child's  mental  character  is  certainly  much  less  than  is 
popularly  supposed ;  and  even  for  the  traits  that  are  most  due  to 
training,  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  there  are  inherited 
mental  bases. 


98  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

If  the  reader  has  accepted  the  facts  presented  in  this  chapter, 
and  our  inferences  from  the  facts,  he  will  admit  that  mental 
differences  between  men  are  at  bottom  due  to  heredity,  just  as 
physical  differences  are;  that  they  are  apparently  inherited  in 
the  same  manner  and  in  approximately  the  same  degree. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  LAWS  OF  HEREDITY 

We  have  now  established  the  bases  for  a  practicable  eugenics 
program.  Men  differ;  these  differences  are  inherited;  therefore 
the  make-up  of  the  race  can  be  changed  by  any  method  which 
will  alter  the  relative  proportions  of  the  contributions  which 
different  classes  of  men  make  to  the  following  generation. 

For  applied  eugenics,  it  is  sufficient  to  know  that  mental  and 
physical  differences  are  inherited;  the  exact  manner  of  inher- 
itance it  would  be  important  to  know,  but  even  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  details  of  the  mechanism  of  heredity,  a  program 
of  eugenics  is  yet  wholly  feasible. 

It  is  no  part  of  the  plan  of  this  book  to  enter  into  the  details 
of  the  mechanism  of  heredity,  a  complicated  subject  for  which 
the  reader  can  refer  to  one  of  the  treatises  mentioned  in  the 
bibliography  at  the  close  of  this  volume.  It  may  be  worth  while, 
however,  to  outUne  in  a  very  summary  way  the  present  status  of 
the  question. 

As  to  the  details  of  inheritance,  research  has  progressed  in  the 
last  few  years  far  beyond  the  crude  conceptions  of  a  decade  ago, 
when  a  primitive  form  of  Mendelism  was  made  to  explain  every- 
thing that  occurred.^  One  can  hardly  repress  a  smile  at  the 
simplicity  of  those  early  ideas, — though  it  must  be  said  that 
some  students  of  eugenics  have  not  yet  outgrown  them.    In 

>  This  is  not  true  of  the  small  English  school  of  biometrists,  founded  by  Sir  Francis 
Gallon,  W.  F.  R.  Weldon  and  Karl  Pearson,  and  now  led  by  the  latter.  It  has 
throughout  denied  or  minified  MendeHan  results,  and  depended  on  the  treatment 
of  inheritance  by  a  study  of  correlations.  With  the  progress  of  Mendelian  research, 
biometric  methods  must  be  supplemented  with-  pedigree  studies.  In  human  hered- 
ity, on  the  other  hand,  because  of  the  great  diflSculties  attendant  upon  an  applica- 
tion of  Mendelian  methods,  the  biometric  mode  of  attack  is  still  the  most  useful, 
and  has  been  largely  used  in  the  present  book.  It  has  been  often  supposed  that 
the  methods  of  the  two  schools  (biometry  and  Mendelism)  are  antagonistic.  They 
are  rather  supplementary,  each  being  valuable  in  cases  where  the  other  is  less  ap- 
plicable. See  Pearl,  Raymond,  Modes  of  Research  in  Genetics,  p.  182,  New  York,  1915 

99 


loo  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

those  days  it  was  thought  that  every  visible  character  in  man 
(or  in  any  other  organism)  was  represented  by  some  "deter- 
miner" in  the  germ-plasm;  that  by  suitable  matings  a  breeder 
could  rid  a  stream  of  germ-plasm  of  almost  any  determiner  he 
wished ;  and  that  the  corresponding  unit  character  would  there- 
upon disappear  from  the  visible  make-up  of  the  individual.  Was 
a  family  reported  as  showing  a  taint,  for  instance,  hereditary 
insanity?  Then  it  was  asserted  that  by  the  proper  series  of 
matings,  it  was  possible  to  squeeze  out  of  the  germ-plasm  the 
particular  concrete  something  of  which  insanity  was  the  visible 
expression,  and  have  left  a  family  stock  that  was  perfectly  sound 
and  sane. 

The  minute,  meticulous  researches  of  experimental  breeders  ^ 
have  left  such  a  view  of  heredity  far  behind.  Certainly  the  last 
word  has  not  been  said;  yet  the  present  hypotheses  work,  when- 
ever the  conditions  are  such  as  to  give  a  fair  chance.  The  results 
of  these  studies  have  led  to  what  is  called  the  factorial  hypothesis 
of  heredity,^  according  to  which  all  the  visible  characters  of  the 
adult  are  produced  by  (purely  hypothetical)  factors  in  the  germ- 
plasm;  it  is  the  factors  that  are  inherited,  and  they,  under 
proper  conditions  for  development,  produce  the  characters.  The 
great  difference  between  this  and  the  earlier  view  is  that  instead 
of  allotting  one  factor  to  each  character,  students  now  believe 
that  each  individual  character  of  the  organism  is  produced  by 
the  action  of  an  indefinitely  large  number  of  factors,^  and  they 

^  Few  p)eople  realize  what  large  numbers  of  plants  and  animals  have  been  bred 
for  experimental  purposes  during  the  last  decade;  \V.  E.  Castle  of  Bussey  Institution, 
Forest  Hills,  Mass.,  has  bred  not  less  than  45,000  rats.  In  the  study  of  a  single 
character,  the  endosperm  of  maize,  nearly  100,000  pedigreed  seeds  have  been  ex- 
amined by  different  students.  Workers  at  the  University  of  California  have  tabu- 
lated more  than  10,000  measurements  on  flower  size  alone,  in  tobacco  hybrids. 
T.  H.  Morgan  and  his  associates  at  Columbia  University  have  bred  and  studied 
more  than  half  a  million  fruit  flies,  and  J.  Arthur  Harris  has  handled  more  than 
600,000  bean-plants  at  the  Carnegie  Institution's  Station  for  Experimental  Evolu- 
tion, Cold  Spring  Harbor,  L.  I.  While  facts  of  human  heredity,  and  of  Inheritance 
in  large  mammals  generally,  are  often  grounded  on  scanty  evidence,  it  must  not 
be  thought  that  the  fundamental  generalizations  of  heredity  are  based  on  insuflS- 
dent  data. 

^  For  a  brief  account  of  Mendelism,  see  Appendix  D. 

^  Of  course  these  factors  are  not  of  equal  importance;  some  of  them  produce  large 


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THE  LAWS  OF  HEREDITY  loi 

have  been  further  forced  to  adopt  the  beHef  that  each  individual 
factqr^ffects-an-indfifinitely  large  number  of  characters,  owing 
to  the  physiological  interrelations  and  correlations  of  every  part 
of  the  body. 

The  sweet  pea  offers  a  good  illustration  of  the  widespread 
effects  which  may  result  from  the  change  of  a  single  factor.  In 
addition  to  the  ordinary  climbing  vine,  there  is  a  dwarf  variety, 
and  the  difference  between  the  two  seems  to  be  proved,  by  ex- 
haustive experimental  breeding,  to  be  due  to  only  one  inherited 
factor.  Yet  the  action  of  this  one  factor  not  only  changes  the 
height  ofjhe  plants  but  also  results  in  changes  in  color  of  foliage, 
length  of  internodes,  size  and  arrangement  of  flowers,  time  of 
opening  of  flowers,  fertility  and  viability. 

Again,  a  mutant  stock  in  the  fruit  fly  (Drosophila)  has  as  its 
most  marked  characteristic  very  short  wings.  "  But  the  factor 
for  rudimentary  wings  also  produces  other  effects  as  well.  The 
females  are  almost  completely  sterile,  while  the  males  are  fertile. 
The  viability  of  the  stocks  is  poor.  When  flies  with  rudimen- 
tary wings  are  put  into  competition  with  wild  flies  relatively  few 
of  the  rudimentary  flies  come  through,  especially  if  the  culture  is 
crowded.  The  hind  legs  are  also  shortened.  All  of  these  effects 
are  the  results  of  a  single  factor-difference."  To  be  strictly 
accurate,  then,  one  should  not  sav  that  a  certaiii  variation 
affects  length  of  wing,  but  that  its  chief  effect  is  to  shorten  the  "y.  — 
wing. 

"One  may  venture  to  guess,"  T.  H.  Morgan  says,^  "  that  some 
of  the  specific  and  varietal  differences  that  are  characteristic  of 
wild  types  and  which  at  the  same  time  appear  to  have  no  sur- 
vival value,  are  only  by-products  of  factors  whose  most  im- 

changes  and  some,  as  far  as  can  be  told,  are  of  minor  significance.  The  factors, 
moreover,  undergo  large  changes  from  time  to  time,  thus  producing  mutations; 
and  it  is  probable  small  changes  as  well,  the  evidence  for  which  requires  greater 
refinements  of  method  than  is  usual  among  those  using  the  {pedigree  method. 

^  A  Critique  of  the  Theory  of  Evolution,  by  Thomas  Hunt  Morgan,  professor  of 
experimental  zoology  in  Columbia  University.  Princeton  University  Press,  19 16. 
This  book  gives  the  best  popular  account  of  the  studies  of  heredity  in  Drosophila. 
The  advanced  student  will  find  The  Mechanism  of  Mendelian  Heredity  (New  York, 
1915),  by  Morgan,  Sturtevant,  Miiller,  and  Bridges,  indispensable,  but  it  is  beyond 
the  comprehension  of  most  beginners. 


I02 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


portant  effect  is  on  another  part  of  the  organism  where  their 
influence  is  of  vital  importance." 

"I  am  incHned  to  think,''  Professor  Morgan  continues,  "that 
an  overstatement  to  the  effect  that  each  factor  may  affect  the 


1  1. 


O 


■hO 


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k  hth  In  h  h-  ' 


O 


□ 


O 


HI 


A  FAMILY  WITH  ORTHODACTYLY 
Fig.  i8.— Squares  denote  males  and  circles  females,  as  is  usual  in  the  charts  com- 
piled by  eugenists;  black  circles  or  squares  denote  affected  individuals.  Ai  had  all 
fingers  affected  in  the  way  shown  in  Fig.  17;  B2  had  all  but  one  finger  affected;  C2 
had  all  but  one  finger  affected;  D2  had  all  fingers  affected;  D3  has  all  but  forefingers 
affected.  The  family  here  shown  is  a  branch,  found  by  F.  N.  Duncan,  of  a  very 
large  family  first  described  by  Harvey  Gushing,  in  which  this  abnormality  has  run 
for  at  least  seven  generations.  It  is  an  excellent  example  of  an  inherited  defect  due 
to  a  single  Mendelian  factor. 

entire  body,  is  less  likely  to  do  harm  than  to  state  that  each 
factor  affects  only  a  particular  character.  The  reckless  use  of  the 
phrase  'unit  character'  has  done  much  to  mislead  the  uninitiated 
as  to  the  effects  that  a  single  change  in  the  germ-plasm  may 
produce  on  the  organism.  Fortunately  the  expression  'unit 
character'  is  being  less  used  by  those  students  of  genetics  who 
are  more  careful  in  regard  to  the  impUcations  of  their  ter- 
minology." 

One  of  the  best  attested  single  characters  in  human  heredity  is 
brachydactyly,  "  short-fingerness, "  which  results  in  a  reduction 
in  the  length  of  the  fingers  by  the  dropping  out  of  one  joint.  If 
one  lumps  together  all  the  cases  where  any  effect  of  this  sort  is 


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Fig.  17.— At  the  left  is  a  hand 
stiff  and  cannot  be  bent.    At  the 
by  contrast  the  nature  of  the  abn 
symphalangism,  and  is  evidently 
N.  Duncan. 

THE  LAWS  OF  HEREDITY  103 

found,  it  is  evident  that  normals  never  transmit  it  to  their 
posterity,  that  affected  persons  always  do,  and  that  in  a  mating 
between  a  normal  and  an  affected  person,  all  the  offspring  will 
show  the  abnormality.    It  is  a  good  example  of  a  unit  character. 

But  its  effect  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  fingers.  It 
tends  to  affect  the  entire,  skeleton,  and  in  a  family  where  one 
child  is  markedly  brachydactylous,  that  child  is  generally  shorter 
than  the  others.  The  factor  for  brachydactyly  evidently  pro- 
duces its  primary  effect  on  the  bones  of  the  hand,  but  it  also  pro- 
duces a  secondary  effect  on  all  the  bones  of  the  body. 

Moreover,  it  will  be  found,  if  a  number  of  brachydactylous 
persons  are  examined,  that  no  two  of  them  are  affected  to  ex- 
actly the  same  degree.  In  some  cases  only  one  finger  will  be 
abnormal;  in  other  cases  there  will  be  a  slight  effect  in  all  the 
fingers;  in  other  cases  all  the  fingers  will  be  highly  affected.  Wh} 
is  there  such  variation  in  the  results  produced  by  a  unit  char- 
acter? Because,  presumably,  in  each  individual  there  is  a  differ- 
ent set  of  modifying  factors  or  else  a  variation  in  the  factor. 
It  has  been  found  that  an  abnormality  quite  like  brachydactyly 
is  produced  by  abnormality  in  the  pituitary  gland.  It  is  then 
fair  to  suppose  that  the  factor  which  produces  brachdactyly 
does  so  by  affecting  the  pituitary  gland  in  some  way.  But  there  fy/f. 
must  be  many  other  factors  which  also  affect  the  pituitary 
and  in  some  cases  probably  favor  its  development,  rather  than 
hindering  it.  Then  if  the  factor  for  brachydactyly  is  depressing 
the  pituitary,  but  if  some  other  factors  are  at  the  same  time 
stimulating  that  gland,  the  effect  shown  in  the  subject's  fingers 
will  be  much  less  marked  than  if  a  group  of  modifying  factors 
were  present  which  acted  in  the  same  direction  as  the  brachy- 
dactyly factor, — to  perturb  the  action  of  the  pituitary  gland. 

This  illustration  is  largely  hypothetical;  but  there  is  no  room 
for  doubt  that  every  factor  produces  more  than  a  single  effect. 
A  white  blaze  in  the  hair,  for  example,  is  a  well-proved  unit 
factor  in  man;  the  factor  not  only  produces  a  white  streak  in  the 
hair,  but  affects  the  pigmentation  of  the  skin  as  well,  usually 
resulting  in  one  or  more  white  spots  on  some  part  of  the  body. 
It  is  really  a  factor  for  "piebaldism." 


I04  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

For  the  sake  of  clear  thinking,  then,  the  idea  of  a  unit  char- 
acter due  to  some  unit  determiner  or  factor  in  the  germ-plasm 
must  be  given  up,  and  it  must  be  recognized  that  every  visible 
character  of  an  individual  is  the  result  of  numerous  factors,  or 
differences  in  the  germ-plasm.  Ordinarily  one  of  these  produces 
a  more  notable  contribution  to  the  end-product  than  do  the 
others;  but  there  are  cases  where  this  statement  does  not 
appear  to  hold  good.  This  leads  to  the  conception  of  multiple^ 
factors.  _ 

In  crossing  a  wheat  with  brown  chaff  and  one  with  white  chaff, 
ILNilsson-Ehle  (1909)  expected  in  the  second  hybrid  generation 
to  secure  a  ratio  of  3  brown  to  i  white.  As  a  fact,  he  got 
1410  brown  and  94  white,  a  ratio  of  15:1.  He  interpreted  this 
as  meaning  that  the  brown  color  in  this  particular  variety  was 
due  not  to  one  factor,  but  to  two,  which  were  equivalent  to 
each  other,  and  either  one  of  which  would  produce  the  same 
result  alone  as  would  the  two  acting  together.  In  further  cross- 
ing red  wheat  with  white,  he  secured  ratios  which  led  him  to  be- 
lieve that  the  red  was  produced  by  three  independent  factors, 
any  one  of  which  would  produce  red  either  alone  or  with  the 
other  two.  A.  and  G.  Howard  later  corroborated  this  work,^  but 
showed  that  the  three  factors  were  not  identical:  they  are 
qualitatively  slightly  different,  although  so  closely  similar  that 
the  three  reds  look  alike  at  first  sight.  E.  M.  East  has  obtained 
evidence  from  maize  and  G.  H.  ShuU  from  shepherd's-purse, 
which  bears  out  the  multiple  factor  hypothesis. 

Apart  from  multiple  factors  as  properly  defined  (that  is, 
factors  which  produce  the  same  result,  either  alone  or  together), 
extensive  analysis  usually  reveals  that  apparently  simple  char- 
acters are  in  reality  complex.  The  purple  aleurone  color  of 
maize  seeds  is  attributed  by  R.  A.  Emerson  to  five  distinct 
factors,  while  E.  Baur  found  four  factors  responsible  for  the 
red  color  of  snapdragon  blossoms.    There  are,  as  G.  N.  Collins 

^  "On  the  Inheritance  of  Some  Characters  in  Wheat,"  A.  and  G.  Howard,  Mem. 
Dep.  ofAgr.  India,  V:i-46,  1912.  This  careful  and  important  work  has  never  re- 
ceived the  recognition  it  deserves,  apparently  because  few  geneticists  have  seen  it. 
While  the  multiple  factors  in  wheat  seem  to  be  different,  those  reported  by  East 
and  Shull  appear  to  be  merely  duplicates. 


WHITE  BLAZE  IN  THE  HAIR 
Fig.  19. — The  white  lock  of  hair  here  shown  is  hereditary  and  has  been 
traced  back  definitely  through  six  generations;  family  tradition  derives  it 
from  a  son  of  Harry  "Hot-Spur"  Percy,  born  in  1403,  and  fallaciously  as- 
signs its  origin  to  "prenatal  influence"  or  "maternal  impression."  This 
young  woman  inherited  the  blaze  from  her  father,  who  had  it  from  his 
mother,  who  had  it  from  her  father,  who  migrated  from  England  to 
America  nearly  a  century  ago.  The  trait  appears  to  be  a  simple  dominant, 
following  Mendel's  Law;  that  is,  when  a  person  with  one  of  these  locks  who 
is  a  child  of  one  normal  and  one  affected  parent  marries  a  normal  individual, 
half  of  the  children  show  the  lock  and  half  do  not.  Photograph  from 
Newton  Miller. 


A  FA%fTLY  OF  SPOTTED  NEGROES 
Fig.  20. — ^The  iHebald  factor  sometimes  shows  itself  as  nothing  more  than  a  blaze  in  the  hair  (see 
preceding  figure);  but  it  may  take  a  much  more  extreme  form,  as  illustrated  by  the  above  photograj^ 
from  Q.  I.  Simpson  and  W.  E.  Castle.  Mrs.  S.  A.,  a  qmtted  mutant,  founded  a  family  which  now  com- 
prises, in  several  generations,  17  spotted  and  16  normal  offspring.  The  white  spotting  factor  behaves 
as  a  Mendelian  dominant,  and  the  expectation  would  be  equal  numbers  of  normal  and  affected  children. 
Simibr  white  factors  are  known  in  other  animals.  It  b  worth  noting  that  all  the  well  attested  Men- 
delian characters  in  man  are  abnormalities,  no  normal  character  having  yet  been  iMX>ved  to  be  inherited 
in  this  manner. 


THE  LAWS  OF  HEREDITY  105 

says/  "still  many  gross  characters  that  stand  as  simple  Mende- 
lian  units,  but  few,  if  any,  of  these  occur  in  plants  or  animals  that 
have  been  subjected  to  extensive  investigation.  There  is  now 
such  a  large  number  of  characters  which  at  first  behaved  as 
units,  but  which  have  since  been  broken  up  by  crossing  with  suit- 
able selected  material,  that  it  seems  not  unreasonable  to  believe 
that  the  remaining  cases  await  only  the  discovery  of  the  right 
strains  with  which  to  hybridize  them  to  bring  about  correspond- 
ing results." 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  there  is  a  real  segregation  between 
factors  as  has  been  shown,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  factors 
and  their  determiners  are  absolutely  invariable.  This  has  been 
too  frequently  assumed  without  adequate  evidence  by  many 
geneticists.  It  is  probable  that  just  as  the  multiplicity  and  inter- 
relation and  minuteness  of  many  factors  have  been  the  principal 
discoveries  of  genetics  in  recent  years  that  the  next  few  years 
will  see  a  great  deal  of  evidence  following  the  important  lead  of 
Castle  and  Jennings,/as  to  variation  in  factorsJL- — — 

Knowing  that  all  the  characters  of  an  individual  are  due  to 
the  interaction  of  numerous  factors,  one  must  be  particularly 
slow  in  assuming  that  such  complex  characters  as  man's  mental 
traits  are  units,  in  any  proper  genetic  sense  of  the  word.  It 
will,  for  instance,  require  very  strong  evidence  to  establish 
feeble-minded ness  as  a  unit  character.  No  one  who  examines 
the  collected  pedigrees  of  families  marked  by  f eeble-mindedness , 
can  deny  that  it  does  appear  at  first  sight  to  behave  as  a  unit 
character,  inherited  in  the  typical  Mendelian  fashion.  The 
psychologist  H.  H.  Goddard,  who  started  out  with  a  strong 
bias  against  believing  that  such  a  complex  trait  could  even 
behave  as  a  unit  character,  thought  himself  forced  by  the  tabula- 
tion of  his  cases  to  adopt  the  conclusion  that  it  does  behave  as  a 
unit  character.  And  other  eugenists  have  not  hesitated  to  afl5rm, 
mainly  on  the  strength  of  I>r.  Goddard's  researches,  that  this 
unit  character  is  due  to  a  single  determiner  in  the  germ-plasm, 
which  either  is  or  is  not  present, — no  halfway  business  about  it. 

^  "The  Nature  of  Mendelian  Units."  By  G.  N.  Collins,  Journal  of  Heredity,  V: 
425  fif.,  Oct.,  1914.  ■ 


io6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

How  were  these  cases  of  feeble-mindedness  defined?  The  def- 
inition is  purely  arbitrary.  Ordinarily,  any  adult  who  tests 
much  below  12  years  by  the  Binet-Simon  scale  is  held  to  be 
feeble-minded ;  and  the  results  of  this  test  vary  a  little  with  the 
skill  of  the  person  applying  it  and  with  the  edition  of  the  scale 
used.    Furthermore,  most  of  the  feeble-minded  cases  in  institu- 


S6-6i  66-75  76-85  86-95         96-105       106-115       U6-125       126-1^       136-146 

J33i  U*  &6«  2(U<         S3SA  iSi  9.0i  az%         .55« 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  I  Q'S  OF  gos  UNSELECTED  CHILDREN, 
5-14  YEARS  OF  AGE 

THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  INTELLIGENCE 
Fig.  23. — Diagram  showing  the  mentaUty  of  905  unselected  children,  5  to  14 
years  of  age,  who  may  probably  be  taken  as  representative  of  the  whole  population. 
The  median  or  tallest  column,  about  one-third  of  the  whole  number,  represents 
those  who  were  normal  or,  as  a  statistician  would  say,  mediocre.  Their  mental 
ages  and  chronological  ages  were  practically  identical.  To  the  left  of  these  the 
diminishing  columns  show  the  number  whose  mental  ages  fell  short  of  their  chrono- 
logical ages.  They  are  the  mentally  retarded,  ranging  all  the  way  down  to  the 
lowest  one-third  of  one  per  cent  who  represent  a  very  low  grade  of  feeble-mindedness. 
On  the  other  side  the  mentally  superior  show  a  similar  distribution.  A  curve  drawn 
over  the  tops  of  the  columns  makes  a  good  normal  curve.  "Since  the  frequency  of 
the  various  grades  of  intelligence  decreases  gradually  and  at  no  point  abruptly  on 
each  side  of  the  median,  it  is  evident  that  there  is  no  definite  dividing  line  between 
normality  and  feeble-mindedness,  or  between  normality  and  genius.  Psychologically, 
the  mentally  defective  child  does  not  belong  to  a  distinct  type,  nor  does  the  gen- 
ius. .  .  .  The  common  opinion  that  extreme  deviations  below  the  median  are  vastly 
more  frequent  than  extreme  deviations  above  the  median  seems  to  have  no  founda- 
tion in  fact.  Among  unselected  school  children,  at  least,  for  every  child  of  any  given 
degree  of  deficiency  there  is  roughly  another  child  as  far  above  the  average  as  the 
former  is  below."    Lewis  M.  Terman,  The  Measurement  of  Intelligence,  pp.  66-67. 

tions,  where  the  Mendelian  studies  have  usually  been  made, 
come  from  families  which  are  themselves  of  a  low  grade  of  men- 
tality. If  the  whole  lot  of  those  examined  were  measured,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  draw  the  line  between  the  normals  and 
the  affected;  there  is  not  nearly  so  much  diflference  between  the 
two  classes,  as  one  would  suppose  who  only  looks  at  a  Mendelian 
chart. 


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THE  LIMITS  OF  HEREDITARY  CONTROL 
Fig.  22. — Print  of  a  finger-tip  showing  a  loop-pattern,  enlarged  about  eight  times.  This  is 
a  common  tyjje  of  pattern,  and  at  first  glance  the. reader  may  think  it  could  be  mistaken  for 
one  of  his  own.  There  are,  however,  at  least  sixty-five  "ridge  characteristics"  on  the 
above  print,  which  an  expert  would  recognize  and  would  use  for  the  purpose  of  identifica- 
tion. If  it  were  found  that  the^  first  two  or  three  of  them  noted  corresponded  to  similar 
characteristics  on  another  print,  the  expert  would  have  no  doubt  that  the  two  prints  were 
made  by  the  same  finger.  In  police  bureaus,  finger-prints  are  filed  for  reference  with  a  classi- 
fication based  on  the  type  of  pattern,  number  of  ridges  between  two  given  points,  etc.;  and 
a  simple  formula  results  which  makes  it  easy  to  find  all  prints  which  bear  a  general  resem- 
blance to  each  other.  The  exact  identity  or  lack  of  it  is  then  determined  by  a  comparison 
of  such  minuticB  as  the  sixty-five  above  enumerated.  While  the  general  outline  of  a  pattern 
is  inherited,  these  small  characters  do  not  seem  to  be,  but  are  apparently  rather  due  to  the 
stretching  of  the  skin  as  it  grows.    Illustration  from  J.  H.  Taylor. 


THE  LAWS  OF  HEREDITY  107 

It  would  be  well  to  extend  our  view  by  measuring  a  whole 
population  with  one  of  the  standard  tests.  If  the  intelligence  of 
a  thousand  children  picked  at  random  from  the  population  be 
measured,  it  will  prove  (as  outlined  in  Chapter  III)  that  some  of 
them  are  feeble-minded,  some  are  precocious  or  highly  intelli- 
gent; and  that  there  is  every  possible  degree  of  intelligence  be- 
tween the  two  extremes.  If  a  great  number  of  children,  all  10 
years  old,  were  tested  for  intelligence,  it  would  reveal  a  few  ab- 
solute idiots  whose  intelligence  was  no  more  than  that  of  the 
ordinary  infant,  a  few  more  who  were  as  bright  as  the  ordinary 
kindergarten  child,  and  so  up  to  the  great  bulk  of  normal  10- 
year-olds,  and  farther  to  a  few  prize  eugenic  specimens  who  had 
as  much  intelligence  as  the  average  college  freshman.  In  other 
words,  this  trait  of  general  intelligence  would  be  found  dis- 
tributed through  the  population  in  accordance  with  that  same 
curve  of  chance,  which  was  discussed  and  illustrated  when  we 
were  talking  about  the  differences  between  individuals. 

Now  what  has  become  of  the  unit  character,  feeble-mindedness? 
How  can  one  speak  of  a  unit  character,  when  the  "unit"  has  an 
infinite  number  of  values?    Is  a  continuous  quantity  a  uniL 

If  intelligence  is  due  to  the  inheritance  of  a  vast,  but  inde- 
terminate, number  of  factors  of  various  kinds,  each  of  which  is 
independent,  knowledge  of  heredity  would  lead  one  to  expect 
that  some  children  would  get  more  of  these  factors  than  others 
and  that,  broadlly  speaking,  no  two  would  get  the  same  number. 
All  degrees  of  intelligence  between  the  idiot  and  the  genius 
would  thus  exist;  and  yet  we  can  not  doubt  that  a  few  of  these 
factors  are  more  important  than  the  others,  and  the  presence 
of  even  one  or  two  of  them  may  markedly  afifect  the  level  of  in- 
telligence. 

It  may  make  the  matter  clearer  if  we  return  for  a  moment  to 
the  physical.  Height,  bodily  stature,  offers  a  very  good  analogy 
for  the  case  we  have  just  been  discussing,  because  it  is  obvious 
that  it  must  depend  on  a  large  number  of  different  factors,  a 
man's  size  being  due  to  the  sum  total  of  the  sizes  of  a  great 
number  of  bones,  ligaments,  tissues,  etc.  It  is  obvious  that  one 
can  be  long  in  the  trunk  and  short  in  the  legs,  or  vice  versa,  and 


io8  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

so  on  through  a  great  number  of  possible  combinations.  Here  is 
a  perfectly  measurable  character  (no  one  has  ever  claimed  that 
it  is  a  genetic  "unit  character"  in  man  although  it  behaves  as 
such  in  some  plants)  as  to  the  complex  basis  of  which  all  will 
agree.  And  it  is  known,  from  common  observation  as  well  as 
from  pedigree  studies,  that  it  is  not  inherited  as  a  unit:  children 
are  never  born  in  two  discontinuous  classes,  "tall"  and  "short," 
as  they  are  with  color  blindness  or  normal  color  vision,  for  ex- 
ample. Is  it  not  a  fair  assumption  that  the  difference  between 
the  apparent  unit  character  of  feeble-mindedness,  and  the  ob- 
vious non-unit  character  of  height,  is  a  matter  of  difference  in 
the  number  of  factors  involved,  difference  in  the  degree  to  which 
they  hang  together  in  transmission,  variation  in  the  factors, 
and  certainly  difference  in  the  method  of  measurement?  Add 
that  the  line  between  normal  and  feeble-minded  individuals  is 
wholly  arbitrary,  and  it  seems  that  there  is  little  reason  to  talk, 
about  feeble-mindedness  as  a  unit  character.  It  may  be  true  that 
thgre  is  some  sort  of  an  inhibiting  factor  inherited  as  a  unit,, 
but  it  seems  more  likely  that  feeble-mindedness  may  be  due  to 
numerous  different  causes;  that  its  presence  in  one  child  is  due 
to  one  factor  or  group  of  factors,  and  in  another  child  to  a  differ- 
ent one.^ 

It  does  not  fall  wholly  into  the  class  of  blending  inheritance,  for 
it  does  segregate  to  a  considerable  extent,  yet  some  of  the  factors 
may  show  blending.  Much  more  psychological  analysis  must 
be  done  before  the  question  of  the  inheritance  of  feeble-minded- 
ness can  be  considered  solved.  But  at  present  one  can  say  with 
confidence  of  this,  as  of  other  mental  traits,  that  like  tends  to 
produce  like ;  that  low  grades  of  mentality  usually  come  from  an 
ancestry  of  low  mentality,  and  that  bright  children  are  usually 
produced  in  a  stock  that  is  marked  by  intelligence. 

Most  mental  traits  are  even  more  complex  in  appearance 
than  feeble-mindedness.    None  has  yet  been  proved  to  be  due  to 

^  Dr.  Castle,  reviewing  Dr.  Goddard's  work  (Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology, 
Aug.— Sept.,  iQis)  concludes  that  feeble-mindedness  is  to  be  explained  as  a  case  of 
multiple  allelomorphs.  The  evidence  is  inadequate  to  prove  this,  and  proof  would 
be,  in  fact,  almost  impossible,  because  of  the  difficulty  of  determining  just  what 
the  segregation  ratios  are. 


"^lipntntpiiiip 


Fig.  24. — The  twins  whose  finger-prints  are  shown  in  Fig.  25. 


THE  LAWS  OF  HEREDITY  109 

a  single  germinal  difference,  and  it  is  possible  that  none  will 
ever  be  so  demonstrated. 

Intensive  genetic  research  in  lower  animals  and  plants  has 
shown  that  a  visible  character  may  be  due  to 

1.  Independent  multiple  factors  in  the  germ-plasm,  as  in  the 
case  of  wheat  mentioned  a  few  pages  back. 

2.  Multiple  allelomorphs,  that  is,  a  series  of  different  grades 
of  a  single  factor. 

3.  One  distinct  Mendelian  factor  (or  several  such  factors), 
with  modifying  factors  which  may  cause  either  (a)  intensifica- 
tion, (b)  inhibition,  or  (c)  dilution. 

4.  Variation  of  a  factor. 

5.  Or  several  or  all  of  the  above  explanations  may  apply  to 
one  case. 

Moreover,  the  characters  of  which  the  origin  has  been  most 
completely  worked  out  are  mostly  color  characters,  whose  physi- 
ological development  seems  to  be  relatively  simple.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  development  of  a  mental  character  is  much  more 
complicated,  and  therefore  there  is  more  likelihood  of  additional 
factors  being  involved. 

To  say,  then,  that  any  mental  trait  is  a  unit  character,  or  that 
it  is  due  to  a  single  germinal  difference,  is  to  go  beyond  both 
the  evidence  and  the  probabilities. 

And  if  mental  traits  are,  in  their  germinal  foundations,  not  \ 
simple  but  highly  complex,  it  follows  that  any  advice  given  as 
to  how  human  matings  should  be  arranged  to  produce  any  ^re^-y 
cise  result  in  the  progeny^should  be  viewed  witTT  distrust.    ^X 
Such  advice  can  be  given  only  in  the  case  of  "a  lew  pathological 
characters  such  as  color-blindness,  night-blindness,  or  Hunting- 
ton's Chorea.    It  is  well  that  the  man  or  woman  interested  in 
one  of  these  abnormalities  can  get  definite  information  on  the 
subject;  and  Huntington's  Chorea,  in  particular,  is  a  dysgenic 
trait  which  can  and  should  be  stamped  out.    But  it  can  not  be 
pretended  that  any  of  man's  traits,  as  to  whose  inheritance  pre- 
diction can  be  made  with  confidence,  is  of  great  importance  to 
national  eugenics. 

In  short,  a  knowledge  of  heredity  shows  that  attempts  to 


no  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

predict  the  mode  of  inheritance  of  the  important  human  traits 
(particularly  mental  traits)  are  still  uncertain  in  their  results. 
The  characters  involved  are  too  complex  to  offer  any  simple  se- 
quences. If  two  parents  have  brown  eyes,  it  can  not  be  said  that 
all  their  children  will  have  brown  eyes;  still  less  can  it  be  said 
that  all  the  children  of  two  musically  gifted  parents  are  certain 
to  be  endowed  with  musical  talent  in  any  given  degree. 

Prediction  is  possible  only  when  uniform  sequences  are  found. 
How  are  such  sequences  to  be  found  in  heredity,  if  they  do  not 
appear  when  a  parent  and  his  offspring  are  examined?  Obviously 
it  is  necessary  to  examine  a  large  number  of  parents  and  their 
offspring, — to  treat  the  problem  by  statistical  methods. 

But,  it  may  be  objected,  a  uniformity  gained  by  such  methods 
is  spurious.  It  is  merely  shutting  the  eyes  to  the  mass  of  con- 
tradictions which  are  concealed  by  an  apparent  statistical  uni- 
formity. 

This  objection  would  be  valid,  if  the  statistical  results  were 
used  for  prediction  in  individual  cases.  The  statistician,  how- 
ever, expressly  warns  that  his  conclusions  must  not  be  used  for 
such  prediction^  They  are  intended  to  predict  only  general 
trends,  only  average  results;  and  for  this  purjjose  they  are  wholly 
legitimate.  Moreover,  evolution  itself  is  a  problem  of  statistics, 
and  therefore  the  statistical  method  of  studying  heredity  may 
offer  results  of  great  value  to  eugenics,  even  though  it  can  not 
furnish  in  individual  cases  the  prediction  which  would  be  de- 
sirable. 

From  this  standpoint,  we  return  to  attack  the  problem  of  the 
relation  between  parent  and  offspring.  We  noted  that  there  is 
no  uniform  sequence  in  a  single  family,  and  illustrated  this  by 
the  case  of  brown  eyes.  But  if  a  thousand  parents  and  their 
offspring  be  selected  and  some  trait,  such  as  eye-color,  or  stat- 
ure, or  general  intelligence,  be  measured,  a  uniformity  at  once 
appears  in  the  fact  of  regression.  Its  discover,  Sir  Francis  Gal- 
ton,  gives  this  account  of  it: 

"If  the  word  'peculiarity'  be  used  to  signify  the  difference 
between  the  amount  of  any  faculty  possessed  by  a  man,  and  the 
average  of  that  possessed  by  the  population  at  large,  then  the 


l-EF^X    HAND. 


PWIn  iMiwyoioa  bI 


l_Ef=-T     HAIMO 


FINGER-PRINTS  OF  TWINS 
Fig.  25. — Above  are  the  finger-prints,  supplied  by  J.  H.  Taylor  of  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment, of  the  two  young  sailors  shown  in  Fig.  24.  The  reader  might  examine  them 
once  or  twice  without  seeing  any  differences.  Systematic  comparison  reveals  that  the 
thumbs  of  the  left  hands  and  the  middle  fingers  of  the  right  hands  particularly  are 
distinguishable.  Finger-prints  as  a  means  of  identification  were  popularized  by  Sir 
Francis  Gallon,  the  founder  of  eugenics,  and  their  superiority  to  all  other  methods  is 
now  generally  admitted.  In  addition  to  this  practical  usefulness,  they  also  furnish 
material  for  study  of  the  geneticist  and  zoologist.  The  extent  to  which  heredity  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  patterns  is  indicated  by  the  resemblance  in  pattern  in  spite  of  the 
great  variability  in  this  tract. 


THE  LAWS  OF  HEREDITY  iii 

law  of  regression  may  be  described  as  follows:  Each  peculiarity 
in  a  man  is  shared  by  his  kinsmen,  but  on  the  average  in  a  less 
degree.  It  is  reduced  to  a  definite  fraction  of  its  amount,  quite 
independently  of  what  its  amount  might  be.  The  fraction  differs 
in  different  orders  of  kinship,  becoming  smaller  as  they  are  more 
remote.  When  the  kinship  is  so  distant  that  its  effects  are  not 
worth  taking  into  account,  the  peculiarity  of  the  man,  however 
remarkable  it  may  have  been,  is  reduced  to  zero  in  his  kinsmen. 
This  apparent  paradox  is  fundamentally  due  to  the  greater 
frequency  of  mediocre  deviations  than  of  extreme  ones,  occur- 
ring between  limits  separated  by  equal  widths." 

As  to  the  application  of  this  law,  let  Galton  himself  speak: 
"The  Law  of  Regression  tells  heavily  against  the  full  hereditary 
transnussTon  of  any  gift.  Only  a  few  out  of  many  children  would 
be  likely  to  differ  from  mediocrity  so  widely  as  their  Mid- Parent 
[i.  e.,  the  average  of  their  two  parents],  allowing  for  sexual  dif- 
ferences, and  still  fewer  would  differ  as  widely  as  the  more  ex- 
ceptional of  the  two  parents.  The  more  bountifully  the  parent 
is  gifted  by  nature,  the  more  rare  will  be  his  good  fortune  if  he 
begets  a  son  who  is  as  richly  endowed  as  himself,  and  still  more 
so  if  he  has  a  son  who  is  endowed  yet  more  largely.  But  the 
law  is  evenhanded;  it  levies  an  equal  succession-tax  on  the  trans- 
mission of  badness  as  of  goodness.  If  it  discourages  the  extrava- 
gant hopes  of  a  gifted  parent  that  his  children  on  the  aver- 
age will  inherit  all  his  powers,  it  not  less  discountenances 
extravagant  fears  that  they  will  inherit  all  his  weakness  and 
disease. 

"It  must  be  clearly  understood  that  there  is  nothing  in  these 
statements  to  invalidate  the  general  doctrine  that  the  children 
of  a  gifted  pair  are  much  more  likely  to  be  gifted  than  the  chil- 
dren of  a  mediocre  pair."  To  this  it  should  be  added  that 
progeny  of  very  great  ability  will  arise  more  frequently  in  pro- 
portion to  the  quality  of  their  parents. 

It  must  be  reiterated  that  this  is  a  statistical,  not  a  biological, 
law;  and  that  even  Galton  probably  goes  a  little  too  far  in  apply- 
ing it  to  individuals.  It  will  hold  good  for  a  whole  population, 
but  not  necessarily  for  only  one  family^    Further,  we  can  afford 


112  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

to  reemphasize  the  fact  that  it  in  no  way  prevents  the  improve- 
ment of  a  race  by  selection  and  assortative  mating. 

Stature  is  the  character  which  Dr.  Galton  used  to  get  an  exact 
measurement  of  the  amount  of  regression.  More  recent  studies 
have  changed  the  value  he  found,  without  invalidating  his 
method.  When  large  numbers  are  taken  it  is  now  abundantly 
proved  that  if  parents  exceed  the  average  stature  of  their  race 
by  a  certain  amount  their  offspring  will,  in  general,  exceed  the 
racial  average  by  only  one-half  as  much  as  their  parents  did. 
This  is  due,  as  Galton  said,  to  the  "drag"  of  the  more  remote 
ancestry,  which  when  considered  as  a  whole  must  represent 
ver}^  nearly  mediocrity,  statistically  speaking. 

The  general  amount  of  regression  in  heredity,,  then,  is  one- 
half .  If  it  be  expressed  as  a  decimal,  .5,  the  reader  will  at  once 
note  its  identity  with  the  coefficient  of  correlation  which  we  have 
so  often  cited  in  this  book  as  a  measure  of  heredity.  In  fact, 
the  coefficient  of  correlation  is  nothing  more  than  a  measure  of 
the  regression,  and  it  is  probably  simpler  to  think  of  it  as  cor- 
relation than  it  is  to  speak  of  a  Law  of  Regression,  as  Sir  Francis 
did. 

This  correlation  or  regression  can,  of  course,  be  measured  for 
other  ancestors  as  well  as  for  the  immediate  parents.  From 
studies  of  eye-color  in  man  and  coat-color  in  horses,  Karl  Pear- 
son worked  out  the  necessary  correlations,  which  are  usually 
referred  to  as  the  law  of  Ancestral  Inheritance.  Dr.  Galton 
had  pointed  out,  years  before,  that  the  contributions  of  the 
several  generations  of  individuals  probably  formed  a  geometrical 
series,  and  Professor  Pearson  calculated  this  series,  for  the  two 
cases  mentioned,  as: 
Parents  Grandparents  G-Grandparents     G-G-Grandparents 

.6244  .1988  .0630  .0202  .  .  .  etc. 

In  other  words,  the  two  parents,  together,  will  on  the  average 
of  a  great  many  cases  be  found  to  have  contributed  a  little  more 
than  three-fifths  of  the  hereditary  peculiarities  of  any  given  in- 
dividual; the  four  grandparents  will  be  found  responsible  for  a 
little  less  than  one-fifth,  and  the  eight  great-grandparents  for 
about  six  hundredths,  and  so  on,  the  contribution  of  each  gener- 


THE  LAWS  OF  HEREDITY  113 

ation  becoming  smaller  with  ascent,  but  each  one  having,  in  the 
average  of  many  cases,  a  certain  definite  though  small  influence, 
until  infinity. 

It  can  not  be  too  strongly  emphasized  that  this  is  a  statistical 
law,  not  a  biological  law.  It  must  not  be  applied  to  predict  the 
character  of  the  offspring  of  any  one  particular  mating,  for  it 
might  be  highly  misleading.  It  would  be  wholly  unjustified, 
for  example,  to  suppose  that  a  certain  man  got  three-tenths 
of  his  nature  from  his  father,  because  the  Law  of  Ancestral 
Heredity  required  it:  in  point  of  fact,  he  might  get  one-tenth  or 
nine-tenths,  none  or  all  of  a  given  trait.  But,  when  dealing 
with  a  large  population,  the  errors  on  one  side  balance  the  errors 
on  the  other,  and  the  law  is  found,  in  the  cases  to  which  it  has 
been  applied,  to  express  the  facts. ^ 

While,  therefore,  this  Galton-Pearson  law  gives  no  advice 
in  regard  to  individual  marriages,  it  is  yet  of  great  value  to 
applied  eugenics.  In  the  first  place,  it  crystallizes  the  vague 
realization  that  remote  ancestry  is  of  much  less  importance 
than  immediate  ancestry,  to  an  individual,  while  showing  that 
every  generation  has  a  part  in  making  a  man  what  he  is.i  In 
the  second  place,  it  is  found,  by  mathematical  reasoning  which 
need  not  here  be  repeated,  that  the  type  of  a  population  may  be 
quickly  changed  by  the  mating  of  like  with  like;  and  that  this 
newly  established  type  may  be  maintained  when  not  capable 
of  further  progress.  Regression  is  not  inevitable,  for  it  ma^^e 
overcome  by  selection. 

To  put  the  matter  in  a  more  concrete  form,  there  is  reason  to 
think  that  if  for  a  few  generations  superior  people  would  marry 
only  people  on  the  average  superior  in  like  degree  (superior  in 
ancestry  as  well  as  individuality),  a  point  would  be  reached 

*  In  strict  accuracy,  the  law  of  ancestral  inheritance  must  be  described  as  giving 
means  of  determining  the  probable  deviation  of  any  individual  from  the  mean  of 
his  own  generation,  when  the  deviations  of  some  or  all  of  his  ancestry  from  the  types 
of  their  respective  generations  are  known.  It  presupposes  (i)  no  assortative  mating, 
(2)  no  inbreeding  and  (3)  no  selection.  Galton's  own  formula,  which  supposed  that 
the  parents  contributed  4,  the  grandparents  V4,  the  great-grandparents  '/,,  the 
next  generation  Vu.  i"'!  so  on,  is  of  value  now  only  historically,  or  to  illustrate 
to  a  layman  the  fact  that  he  inherits  from  his  whole  ancestry,  not  from  his  parents 
alone. 


114  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

where  all  the  ofTspring  would  tend  to  be  superior,  mediocrities  of 
the  former  type  being  eliminated;  and  this  superiority  could  be 
maintained  as  long  as  care  was  taken  to  avoid  mating  with  in- 
ferior. In  other  words,  the  Galton-Pearson  Law  gives  statistical 
support  for  a  belief  that  eugenic  marriages  will  create  an  im- 
proved breed  of  men.  And  this,  it  seems  to  us,  is  the  most  im- 
portant implication  of  that  law  for  eugenics,  although  it  is  an 
implication  that  is  generally  ignored. 

We  do  not  propose  to  discuss  further  the  laws  of  heredity; 
but  it  is  likely  that  the  reader  who  has  made  no  other  study  of 
the  subject  may  by  this  time  find  himself  somewhat  bewildered. 
"Can  we  talk  only  in  generalities?"  he  may  well  ask;  "Does  eu- 
genics know  no  laws  of  heredity  that  will  guide  me  in  the  choice 
of  a  wife?    I  thought  that  was  the  purpose  of  eugenics!" 

We  reply:  (i)  The  laws  of  heredity  are  vastly  complicated  in 
man  by  the  complex  nature  of  most  of  his  characters.  The 
definite  way  in  which  some  abnormalities  are  inherited  is  known; 
but  it  has  not  been  thought  necessary  to  include  an  account 
of  such  facts  in  this  work.  They  are  set  forth  in  other  books, 
especially  Davenport's  Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics.  The 
knowledge  of  how  such  a  trait  as  color-blindness  is  inherited 
may  be  of  importance  to  one  man  out  of  a  thousand  in  choosing 
a  wife;  but  we  are  taking  a  broader  view  of  eugenics  than  this. 
As  far  as  the  great  mass  of  human  characters  go,  they  are,  in 
our  opinion,  due  to  so  many  separately  inheritable  factors  that 
it  is  not  safe  to  dogmatize  about  exactly  how  they  will  behave 
in  heredity.  Such  knowledge,  desirable  as  it  may  be,  is  not  ne- 
cessary for  race  progress. 

(2)  But  it  is  possible,  with  present  knowledge,  to  say  that  hu- 
man traits,  mental  as  well  as  physical,  are  inherited,  in  a  high 
degree.  Even  before  the  final  details  as  to  the  inheritance  of  all 
traits  are  worked  out — a  task  that  is  never  likely  to  be  accom- 
plished— there  is  ample  material  on  which  to  base  action  for  eu- 
genics. The  basal  differences  in  the  mental  traits  of  man  (and 
the  physical  as  well,  of  course)  are  known  to  be  due  to  heredity, 
and  little  modified  by  training.  It  is  therefore  possible  to  raise 
the  level  of  the  human  race — the  task  of  eugenics — by  getting 


THE  LAWS  OF  HEREDITY  115 

that  half  of  the  race  which  is,  on  the  whole,  superior  in  the  traits 
that  make  for  human  progress  and  happiness,  to  contribute  a 
larger  proportion  to  the  next  generation  than  does  the  half  which 
is  on  the  whole  inferior  in  that  respect.  Eugenics  need  know 
nothing  more,  and  the  smoke  of  controversy  over  the  exact 
way  in  which  some  trait  or  other  is  inherited  must  not  be  al- 
lowed for  an  instant  to  obscure  the  known  fact  that  the  level  can 
be  raised. 


CHAPTER  VI 
NATURAL  SELECTION 

Man  has  risen  from  the  ape  chiefly  through  the  action  of 
natural  selection.  Any  scheme  of  conscious  race  betterment, 
then,  should  carefully  examine  nature's  method,  to  learn  to  what 
extent  it  is  still  acting,  and  to  what  extent  it  may  better  be  sup- 
planted or  assisted  by  methods  of  man's  own  invention. 

Natural  selection  operates  in  two  ways:  (i)  through  a  se- 
lective death-rate  and  (2)  through  a  selective  birth-rate.  The 
first  of  these  forms  has  often  been  considered  the  whole  of  natural 
selection,  but  wrongly.  The  second  steadily  gains  in  importance 
as  an  organism  rises  in  the  scale  of  evolution;  until  in  man  it  is 
likely  soon  to  dwarf  the  lethal  factor  into  insignificance.  For  it 
is  evident  that  the  appalling  slaughter  of  all  but  a  few  of  the  in- 
dividuals born,  which  one  usually  associates  with  the  idea  of 
natural  selection,  will  take  place  only  when  the  number  of  in- 
dividuals born  is  very  large.  As  the  reproductive  rate  decreases, 
so  does  the  death-rate,  for  a  larger  proportion  of  those  born  are 
able  to  find  food  and  to  escape  enemies. 

When  considering  man,  one  realizes  at  once  that  relatively 
few  babies  or  adults  starve  to  death.  The  selective  death-rate 
therefore  must  include  only  those  who  are  unable  to  escape  their 
enemies;  and  while  these  enemies  of  the  species,  particularly 
certain  microorganisms,  still  take  a  heavy  toll  from  the  race, 
the  progress  of  science  is  likely  to  make  it  much  smaller  in  the 
future. 

The  different  aspects  of  natural  selection  may  be  classified  as 
follows:  J 

^     ,    ,  Sustentative    y       .         -^  . 

Lethal  {^.j  *    .  *•       (^z-^^-^'-'^'^-^ 

Non-sustentative 

T,        J     i-        Sexual 
Reproductive  i  ,  , 

Fecundal 

116 


Natural  selection 


NATURAL  SELECTION  117 

The  lethal  factor  is  the  one  which  Darwin  himself  most  em- 
phasized. Obviously  a  race  will  be  steadily  improved,  if  the 
worst  stock  in  it  is  cut  off  before  it  has  a  chance  to  reproduce, 
and  if  the  best  stock  survives  to  perpetuate  its  kind.  "This 
preservation  of  favourable  individual  differences  and  variations, 
and  the  destruction  of  those  which  are  injurious,  I  have  called 
natural  selection,  or  the  survival  of  the  fittest,"  Darwin  wrote; 
and  he  went  on  to  show  that  the  principal  checks  on  increase 
were  overcrowding,  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  food,  destruction 
by  enemies,  and  the  lethal  effects  of  climate.  These  causes  may 
be  conveniently  divided  as  in  the  above  diagram,  into  sustenta- 
tive  and  non-sustentative.  The  sustentative  factor  has  acquired 
particular  prominence  in  the  human  species,  since  Malthus  wrote 
his  essay  on  population — that  essay  which  both  Darwin  and 
Wallace  confess  was  the  starting  point  of  their  discovery  of 
natural  selection. 

There  is  a  "constant  tendency  in  all  animated  life  to  increase 
beyond  the  nourishment  prepared  for  it,"  Malthus  declared. 
"It  is  incontrovertibly  true  that  there  is  no  bound  to  the  pro- 
lific plants  and  animals,  but  what  is  made  by  their  crowding 
and  interfering  with  each  others'  means  of  subsistence."  His 
deduction  is  well  known:  that  as  man  tends  to  increase  in  geo- 
metrical ratio,  and  can  not  hope  to  increase  his  food-supply 
more  rapidly  than  in  arithmetical  ratio,  the  human  race  must 
eventually  face  starvation,  unless  the  birth-rate  be  reduced. 

Darwin  was  much  impressed  by  this  argument  and  ever 
since  his  time  it  has  usually  been  the  foundation  for  any  dis- 
cussion of  natural  selection.  Nevertheless  it  is  partly  false  for 
all  animals,  as  one  of  the  authors  showed  ^  some  years  ago,  since 
a  species  which  regularly  eats  up  all  the  food  in  sight  is  rare 
indeed;  and  it  is  of  very  little  racial  importance  in  the  present- 
day  evolution  of  man.  Scarcity  of  food  may  put  sufficient  pres- 
sure on  him  to  cause  emigration,  but  rarely  death.  The  im- 
portance of  Malthus'  argument  to  eugenics  is  too  slight  to 
warrant  further  discussion. 

'  Johnson,  Roswell  H.,  "The  Malthusian  Principle  and  Natural  Selection,"  Amer- 
ican Naturalist,  XLVI  (1912),  pp.  372-376. 


ii8  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Whg.Q_the  non-sustentative  forms  of  lethal  selection  are  con- 
sidered, it  is  seen  very  clearly  that  man  is  not  exempt  from  the 
workings  of  this  law.  A  non-sustentative  form  of  natural  se- 
lection takes  place  through  the  destruction  of  the  individual  by 
some  adverse  feature  of  the  environment,  such  as  excessive 
cold,  or  bacteria;  or  by  bodily  deficiency;  and  it  is  independent 
of  mere  food-supply.  W.  F.  R.  Weldon  showed  by  a  long  series 
of  measurements,  for  example,  that  as  the  harbor  of  Plymouth, 
England,  kept  getting  muddier,  the  crabs  which  lived  in  it  kept 
getting  narrower;  those  with  the  greatest  frontal  breadth  fil- 
tered the  water  entering  their  gills  least  efifectively,  and 
died. 

But,  it  was  objected,  man  is  above  all  this.  He  has  gained  the 
control  of  his  own  environment.  The  bloody  hand  of  natural 
selection  may  fall  on  crabs:  but  surely  you  would  not  have  us 
think  that  Man,  the  Lord  of  Creation,  shares  the  same  fate? 

Biologists  could  hardly  think  otherwise.  Statisticians  were 
able  to  supply  the  needed  proof.  A  selective  death-rate  in  man 
can  not  only  be  demonstrated  but  it  can  be  actually  measured. 

"  The  measure  of  the  selective  death-rate,"  says  ^  Karl  Pearson, 
to  whom  this  achievement  is  due,  "is  extraordinarily  simple. 
It  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  inheritance  of  the  length  of  life 
between  parent  and  offspring  is  found  statistically  to  be  about 
one-third  of  the  average  inheritance  of  physical  characters  in 
man.  This  can  only  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  death  of  parent 
or  of  offspring  in  a  certain  number  of  cases  is  due  to  random  and 
not  to  constitutional  causes."  He  arrived  at  the  conclusion  ^ 
that  60%  of  the  deaths  were  selective,  in  the  Quaker  families 
which  he  was  then  studying.  The  exact  proportion  must  vary 
in  accordance  with  the  nature  of  the  material  and  the  environ- 
ment, but  as  A.  Ploetz  found  at  least  60%  of  the  deaths  to  be 
selective  in  the  European  royal  families  and  nobility,  where  the 

^  Karl  Pearson,  The  Groundwork  of  Eugenics,  p.  25,  London,  1912. 

^  "Let  p  be  the  chance  of  death  from  a  random,  not  a  constitutional  source,  then 
I — p  is  the  chance  of  a  selective  death  in  a  parent  and  i — p  again  of  a  selective 
death  in  the  case  of  an  offspring,  then 

(i — />)*  must  equal  about  '/a.  =  •3''.  more  exactly.'.!— />  =  .6 
and  #  =  .40.    In  other  words,  60%  of  the  deaths  are  selective.'" 


NATURAL  SELECTION  119 

environment  is  uniformly  good,  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that 
Professor  Pearson's  conclusion  is  invalid. 

Dr.  Ploetz  ^  investigated  the  relation  between  length  of  life 
in  parents, and  infant  mortality,  in  about  1,000  families  including 
5,500  children;  half  of  these  were  from  the  nobility  and  half  from 
the  peasantry.  The  results  were  of  the  same  order  in  each  case, 
indicating  that  environment  is  a  much  less  important  factor  than 
many  have  been  wont  to  suppose.  After  discussing  Professor 
Pearson's  work,  he  continued: 

It  seems  to  me  that  a  simpler  result  can  be  reached  from  our  ma- 
terial in  the  following  way.  Since  the  greater  child-mortality  of 
each  of  our  classes  of  children  (divided  according  to  the  ages  at  death 
of  their  parents)  indicates  a  higher  mortality  throughout  the  rest 
of  their  lives,  the  oflfspring  of  parents  who  die  young  will  therefore  be 
eliminated  in  a  higher  degree,  that  is,  removed  from  the  composition 
of  the  race,  than  will  those  whose  parents  died  late.  Now  the  elimina- 
tion can  be  non-selective,  falling  on  all  sorts  of  constitutions  with  the 
same  frequency  and  degree.  In  that  case  it  will  of  course  have  no 
connection  with  selection  inside  the  race.  Or  it  may  be  of  a  selective 
nature,  falling  on  its  victims  because  they  differ  from  those  who  are 
not  selected,  in  a  way  that  makes  them  less  capable  of  resisting  the 
pressure  of  the  environment,  and  avoiding  its  dangers.  Then  we 
speak  of  a  selective  process,  of  the  elimination  of  the  weaker  and  the 
survival  of  the  stronger.  Since  in  our  examination  of  the  various 
causes  of  the  difference  in  infant  mortality,  in  the  various  age-classes 
of  parents,  we  found  no  sufficient  cause  in  the  effects  of  the  environ- 
ment, which  necessarily  contains  all  the  non-selective  perils,  but 
found  the  cause  to  be  in  the  different  constitutions  inherited  by  the 
children,  we  can  not  escape  the  conclusion  that  the  differences  in 
infant  mortality  which  we  observe  indicate  a  strong  process  of  nat- 
ural selection. 

Our  tables  also  permit  us  to  get  an  approximate  idea  of  the  ex- 
tent of  selection  by  death  among  children  in  the  first  five  years  of 
life.  The  minimum  of  infant  mortality  is  reached  among  those 
children  whose  parents  have  attained  85  years  of  age.  Since  these 
represent  the  strongest  constitutions,  the  mortality  of  their  children 
would  appear  to  represent  an  absolute  minimum,  made  up  almost 
wholly  of  chance,  non-selective,  unavoidable  deaths.  As  the  number 
^  Archiv  J.  Rassen-  u.  Gesellscha/ls  Biologic,  VI  (1909),  pp.  33-43- 


I20  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

of  children  from  marriages,  both  parties  to  which  reached  8$  years 
of  age,  is  so  small  as  to  render  any  safe  conclusions  impossible,  our 

^  only  recourse  is  to  take  the  children  of  the  85-year-old  fathers  and 
the  children  of  the  85-year-old  mothers,  add  them  together,  and 
strike  an  average.  But  we  must  recognize  that  the  minimum  so 
obtained  is  nevertheless  still  too  large,  because  among  the  consorts 
of  the  long-lived  fathers  and  mothers,  some  died  early  with  the  re- 
sult of  increasing  the  infant  mortality.  The  infant  mortality  with 
the  85-year-old  fathers  and  mothers  is  found  to  be  ii.2%-i5.4%, 
average  about  13%.    The  total  child-mortality  reaches  31-32%,  of 

^which  the  13%  make  about  40%.  Accordingly  at  least  60%,  and 
'  /.iconsidering  the  above  mentioned  sources  of  error  we  may  say  two- 
thirds,  of  the  child  mortality  is  selective  in  character.  That  accords 
reasonably  well  with  the  55-74%  which  Pearson  found  for  the  extent 
of  selective  deaths  in  his  study. 

In  general,  then,  one  may  believe  that  more  than  a  half  of  the 
persons  who  die  nowadays,  die  because  they  were  not  fit  by 
by  nature  (i.  e.,  heredity)  to  survive  under  the  conditions  into 
which  they  were  born.  They  are  the  victims  of  lethal  jiaUii^l 
selectionjjnearly  always  of  the  non-sustentative  type.  As  Karl 
Pearson  says,  "Every  man  who  has  lived  through  a  hard  winter, 
every  man  who  has  examined  a  mortality  table,  every  man  who 
has  studied  the  history  of  nations  has  probably  seen  natural 
selection  at  work." 

There  is  still  another  graphic  way  of  seeing  natural  selection  at 
work,  by  an  examination  of  the  infant  mortality^lone.  Imagine 
a  thousand  babies  coming  into  the  world  on  a  given  day.  It  is 
known  that  under  average  American  conditions  more  than  one- 
tenth  of  them  will  die  during  the  first  year  of  life.  Now  if  those 
who  die  at  this  time  are  the  inherently  weaker,  then  the  death- 
rate  among  survivors  ought  to  be  correspondingly  less  during 
succeeding  years,  for  many  will  have  been  cut  down  at  once,  who 
might  otherwise  have  lingered  for  several  years,  although 
doomed  to  die  before  maturity.  On  the  other  hand,  if  only  a  few 
die  during  the  first  year,  one  might  expect  a  proportionately 
greater  number  to  die  in  succeeding  years.  If  it  is  actually 
found  that  a  high  death-rate  in  the  first  year  of  life  is  associated 


NATURAL  SELECTION  121 

with  a  low  death-rate  in  succeeding  years,  then  there  will  be 
grounds  for  believing  that  natural  selection  is  really  cutting  off 
the  weaker  and  allowing  the  stronger  to  survive. 

E.  C.  Snow  ^  analyzed  the  infant  mortality  registration  of 
parts  of  England  and  Prussia  to  determine  whether  any  such 
conclusion  was  justified.  His  investigation  met  with  many 
difficulties,  and  his  results  are  not  as  clear-cut  as  could  be  de- 
sired, but  he  felt  justified  in  concluding  from  them  that  "the 
general  result  can  not  be  questioned.  Natural  selection,  in  the 
form  of  a  selective  death-rate,  is  strongly  operative  in  man  in 
the  early  years  of  life.  We  assert  with  great  confidence  that  a 
high  mortaUty  in  infancy  (the  first  two  years  of  life)  is  followed 
by  a  correspondingly  low  mortality  in  childhood,  and  vice- 
versa.  .  .  .  Our  work  has  led  us  to  the  conclusion  that  infant 
mortality  does  effect  a  *  weeding  out '  of  the  unfit." 

"Unfitness"  in  this  connection  must  not  be  interpreted  too 
narrowly.  A  child  may  be  "unfit "  to  survive  in  its  environment, 
merely  because  its  parents  are  ignorant  and  careless.  Such 
unfitness  makes  more  probable  an  inheritance  of  low  intelli- 
gence. 

Evidence  of  natural  selection  was  gathered  by  Karl  Pearson 
from  another  source  and  published  in  191 2.  He  dealt  with 
material  analogous  to  that  of  Dr.  Snow  and  showed  "that  when 
allowance  was  made  for  change  of  environment  in  the  course  of 
50  years,  a  very  high  association  existed  between  the  deaths  in 
the  first  year  of  life  and  the  deaths  in  childhood  (i  to  5  years). 
This  association  was  such  that  if  the  infantile  death-rate  in- 
creased by  10%  the  child  death  rate  decreased  by  5.3%  in  males, 
while  in  females  the  fall  in  the  child  death-rate  was  almost  1% 
for  every  1%  rise  in  the  infantile  death-rate." 

To^put  the  matter  in  the  form  of  a  truism,  part  of  the  children 
bom  in  any  district  in  a  given  year  are  doomed  by  heredity  to  a 
premature  death;  and  if  they  die  in  one  year  they  will  not  be 
alive  to  die  in  some  succeeding  year. 

Lately  a  new  mathematical  method,  which  is  termed  the 
Variate  Difference  Correlation  method,  has  been  invented  and 

'  Snow,  E.  C,  On  the  Intensity  of  Natural  Selection  in  Man,  London,  igii. 


122  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

gives  more  accurate  results,  in  such  an  investigation  as  that  of 
natural  selection,  than  any  hitherto  used.  With  this  instrument 
Professor  Pearson  and  Miss  Elderton  have  confirmed  the 
previous  work.  Applying  it  to  the  registered  births  in  England 
and  Wales  between  1850  and  191 2,  and  the  deaths  during  the 
first  five  years  of  life  in  the  same  period,  they  have  again  found  ^ 
that  "for  both  sexes  a  heavy  death-rate  in  one  year  of  life  means 
a  marlcediy  lower  death-rate  in  the  same  group  in  the  following 
year  of  life."  This  lessened  death-rate  extends  in  a  lessened 
degree  to  the  year  following  that,  but  is  not  by  the  present 
method  easy  to  trace  further. 

"It  is  difficult,"  as  they  conclude,  "to  believe  that  this  im- 
portant fact  can  be  due  to  any  other  source  than  natural  selec- 
tion, i.  e.,  a  heavy  mortality  leaves  behind  it  a  stronger  popula- 
tion." 

To  avoid  misunderstandings,  it  may  be  well  to  add  to  this 
review  the  closing  words  of  the  Elderton-Pearson  memoir. 
"Nature  is  not  concerned  with  the  moral  or  the  immoral,  which 
are  standards  of  human  conduct,  and  the  duty  of  the  naturalist 
is  to  point  out  what  goes  on  in  Nature.  There  can  now  be 
scarcely  a  doubt  that  even  in  highly  organized  human  com- 
munities the  death-rate  is  selective,  and  physical  fitness  is  the 
criterion  for  survival.  To  assert  the  existence  of  this  selection 
and  measure  its  intensity  must  be  distinguished  from  an  ad- 
vocacy of  high  infant  mortality  as  a  factor  of  racial  efficiency. 
This  reminder  is  the  more  needful  as  there  are  not  wanting  those 
who  assert  that  demonstrating  the  existence  of  natural  selection 
in  man  is  identical  with  decrying  all  efforts  to  reduce  the  in- 
fantile death-rate."  A  further  discussion  of  this  point  will 
be  found  in  a  later  chapter. 

The  conclusion  that,  of  the  infants  who  die,  a  large  number  do 
so  through  inherent  weakness — because  they  are  not  "fit"  to 
survive — is  also  suggested  by  a  study  of  the  causes  of  death. 
From  a  third  to  a  half  of  the  deaths  during  the  first  year  of  life, 
and  f)articularly  during  the  first  month,  are  due  to  what  may  be 
termed  uterine  causes,  such  as  debility,  atrophy,  inanition,  or 

<  Biometrika  Vol.  X,  pp.  488-506,  London,  May,  1915. 


NATURAL  SELECTION  123 

premature  birth.  Although  in  many  cases  such  a  death  is  the 
result  of  lack  of  prenatal  care,  in  still  more  it  must  be  ascribed  to 
a  defect  in  the  parental  stock. 

In  connection  with  infant  mortality,  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
point  out  that  the  intensity  of  natural  selection  is  probably 
greater  among  boys  than  among  girls.  There  is  a  steady  pre- 
ponderance of  boys  over  girls  at  birth  (about  105  to  100,  in  the 
United  States)<^\vhile  among  the  still-born  the  prop^liotr'ls' 

5^to  100,  Jf  the  Massachusetts  figures  for  1891-1900  may  be 
taken  as  general  in  application.  Evidently  a  large  number  of 
weak  males  have  been  eliminated  before  birth.  This  elimination 
continues  for  a  number  of  years  to  be  greater  among  boys  than 
among  girls,  until  in  the  period  of  adolescence  the  death-rates  of 
the  two  sexes  are  equal.  In  adult  life  the  death-rate  among  men 
is  nearly  always  higher  than  that  among  women,  but  this  is  due 
largely  to  the  fact  that  men  pursue  occupations  where  they  are 
more  exposed  to  death.  In  such  cases,  and  particularly  where 
deaths  are  due  to  accident,  the  mortality  may  not  only  be  non- 
selective, but  is  sometimes  contra-selective,  for  the  strongest  and 
most  active  men  will  often  be  those  who  expose  themselves  most" 
to  some  danger.  Siuji  a  reversal  of  the  actionof  natural  selec- 
tion is  seen  on  a  large  scale  in  the  case  of  war,  where  the  strongest  ^ 
go  to  the  fray  and  are  killed,  while  the  weaklings  stay  at  home  to  ^2te^=3. 
perpetuate  their  type  of  the  race. 

A  curious  aspect  of  the  kind  of  natural  selection  under  con- 
sideratIon,^^fhat  which  operates  by  death  without  reference  fo"*^ 
the  food-supply, — is  seen  in  the  evolution  of  a  wide  pelvis  in 
women.  Before  the  days  of  modern  obstetrics,  the  woman  bom 
with  an  unusually  narrow  pelvis  was  likely  to  die  during  par- 
turition, and  the  inheritance  of  a  narrower  type  of  pelvis  was 
thus  stopped.  With  the  introduction  and  improvement  of  in- 
strumental and  induced  deliveries,  many  of  these  women  are 
enabled  to  survive,  with  the  necessary  consequence  that  their 
daughters  will  in  many  cases  have  a  similarly  narrow  pelvis,  and 
experience  similar  difficulty  in  childbirth.  The  percentage  of 
deliveries  in  which  instrumental  aid  is  necessary  is  thus  increas- 
ing  from  generatioFrio  generation,  and  is  likely  to  continue  to 


124  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

increase  for  some  time.  In  other  words,  natural  selection,  be- 
cause of  man's  interference,  can  no  longer  maintain  the  width 
oF~wonran*s"P5lvtspas  it  formerly  did,  and  a  certain  amount  of 
reversion  in  this  respect  is  probably  taking  place — a  reversion 
which,  if  unchecked,  would  necessarily  lead  after  a  long  time  to  a 
reduction  in  the  average  size  of  skull  of  that  part  of  the  human 
race  which  frequently  uses  forceps  at  childbirth.  The  time 
would  be  long  because  the  forceps  permit  the  survival  of  some 
large-headed  infants  who  otherwise  would  die. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  lethal,  non-sustentative 
selection  works  only  through  forms  of  infant  mortality.  That 
aspect  was  first  discussed  because  it  is  most  obvious,  but  the 
relation  of  natural  selection  to  microbic  disease  is  equally  wide- 
spread and  far  more  striking. 

As  to  the  inheritance  of  disease  as  such  there  is  little  room  for 
misunderstanding:  no  biologist  now  believes  a  disease  is  actually 
handed  down  from  parent  to  child  in  the  germ-plasm,  But 
what  the  doctors  call  a  diathesis,  a  predisposition  to  some  given 
disease,  is  most  certainly  heritable — a  fact  which  Karl  Pearson 
and  others  have  proved  by  statistics  that  can  not  be  given  here.  ^ 
And  any  individual  who  has  inherited  this  diathesis,  this  lack  of 
resistance  to  a  given  disease,  is  marked  as  a  possible  victim  of 
natural  selection.  The  extent  to  which  and  the  manner  in 
which  it  operates  many  be  more  readily  understood  by  the 
study  of  a  concrete  case.  Tuberculosis  is,  as  everyone  knows,  a 
disease  caused  directly  by  a  bacillus;  and  a  disease  to  which 
immunity  can  not  be  acquired  by  any  process  of  vaccination  or 
inoculation  yet  known.  It  is  a  disease  which  is  not  directly 
inherited  as  such.  Yet  every  city-dweller  in  the  United  States 
is  almost  constantly  exposed  to  infection  by  this  bacillus,  and 
autopsies  show  that  most  persons  have  actually  been  infected  at 

*  Pearson,  Karl,  Tuberculosis,  Beredity  and  Environment,  London,  igi2.  Among 
the  most  careful  contributions  to  the  problem  of  tuberculosis  are  those  of  Charles 
Goring  {On  the  Inheritance  of  the  Diathesis  of  Phthisis  and  Insanity,  London,  1910), 
Ernest  G.  Pope  {A  Second  Study  of  the  Statistics  of  Pulmonary  Tuberculosis,  London, 
Dulau  &  Co.),  and  W.  P.  Elderton  and  S.  J.  Perry  (A  Third  Study  of  the  Statistics 
of  Pulmonary  Tuberculosis.  The  Mortality  of  the  Tuberculous  and  Sanatorium  Trcat- 
merU),  London,  1909.    See  also  our  discussion  in  Chapter  I. 


NATURAL  SELECTION  125 

some  period  of  life,  but  have  resisted  further  encroachment. 
Perhaps  a  fraction  of  them  will  eventually  die  of  consumption; 
the  rest  will  die  of  some  other  disease,  and  will  probably  never 
even  know  that  they  have  carried  the  bacilli  of  tuberculosis  in 
their  lungs. 

Of  a  group  of  men  picked  at  random  from  the  population, 
why  will  some  eventually  die  of  tuberculosis  and  the  others 
resist  infection?  Is  it  a  matter  of  environment? — are  open-air 
schools,  sanitary  tenements,  proper  hygiene,  the  kind  of  meas- 
ures that  will  change  this  condition?  Such  is  the  doctrine  widely 
preached  at  the  present  day.  It  is  alleged  that  the  white  plague 
may  be  stamped  out,  if  the  open  cases  of  tuberculosis  are 
isolated  and  the  rest  of  the  population  is  taught  how  to  live 
properly.  The  problem  is  almost  universally  declared  to  be  a 
problem  of  infection. 

Infection  certainly  is  the  immediate  problem,  but  the  biologist 
sees  a  greater  one  a  little  farther  back.  It  is  the  problem  of 
natural  selection. 

To  prove  this,  it  is  necessary  to  prove  (i)  that  some  people  are 
born  witfTIess  resistance  to  tuberculosis  than  otherslinij'fi)  that 
it  is  these  people  with  weak  natural  resistance  who  die  of  phthisis, 
while  their  neighbors  with  stronger  resistance  survive.  The 
proof  of  these  propositions  has  been  abundantly  given  by  Karl 
Pearson,  G.  Archdall  Reid  and  others.  Their  main  points  may 
be  indicated.  In  the  first  place  it  must  be  shown  that  the 
morbidity  from  tuberculosis  is  largely  due  to  heredity — a  point 
on  which  most  medical  men  are  still  uninformed.  Measurement 
of  the  '^'rnnt  nr,rrf^]^f^r,n  w^fwppr.  phtlusis  in  parent  and  child 
shows  it  to  be  about  .5,  i.  e.,  what  one  expects  if  it  is  a  matter  of 
heredity.  This  is  the  coefficient  for  most  physical  and  mental 
characters:  it  is  the  coefficient  for  such  pathological  traits  as 
deafness  and  insanity,  which  are  obviously  due  in  most  cases 
to  inheritance  rather  than  infection. 

But,  one  objects,  this  high  correlation  between  parent  and 
child  does  not  prove  inheritance, — it  obviously  proves  infection. 
The  family  relations  are  so  intimate  that  it  is  folly  to  overlook 
this  factor  in  the  spread  of  the  disease. 


126  APPLIED  EUGENICS 


Very  well,  Professor  Pearson  replied,  if  the  relations  between 
patent  and  child  are  so  intimate  that  they  lead  to  infection,  they 
are  certainly  not  less  intimate  between  husband  and  wife,  and 
there  ought  to  be  just  as  rAuch  infection  in  this  relationship  as  in 
the  former.  Thecorrelatiqn  was  measured  in  thousands  of  cases 
and  was  found  to  he  arogind  .25,  being  lowest  in  the  poorer 
classes  and  highest  in  the  well-to-do  classes. 

At  first  glance  this  seems  partly  to  confirm  the  objection — it 
looks  as  if  there  must  be  a  considerable  amount  of  tubercular 
infection  between  husband  and  wife.  But  when  it  is  found  that 
the  resemblance  between  husband  and  wife  in  the  matter  of_ 
insaj^ljLJsjjso  ^25,  the  objection  becomes  less  formidable.  Cer- 
tainly it  will^Kardly  be  argued  that  one  of  the  partners  infects 
the  other  with  this  disability. 

As  a  fact,  a  correlatioiLflL-25  between  husband  and  wife,  for 
tuberculosis,  is  only  partly  due  to  infection.  What  it  does  mean 
is  that  like  tends  to  mate  with  like — called  assortative  mating. 
This  coefficient  of  resemblance  between  husband  and  wife  in 
regard  to  phthisis  is  about  the  same  as  the  correlation  of  re- 
semblance between  husband  and  wife  for  eye  color,  stature, 
longevity,  general  health,  truthfulness,  tone  of  voice,  and  many 
_other  characters.  No  one  will  suppose  that  life  partners  "in- 
fect" each  other  in  these  respects.  Certainly  no  one  will  claim 
that  a  man  deliberately  selects  a  wife  on  the  basis  of  resemblance 
to  himself  in  these  points;  but  he  most  certainly  does  so  to  some 
extent  unconsciously,  as  will  be  described  at  greater  length  in 
Chapter  XI.  Assortative  mating  is  a  well-established  fact,  and 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  much  of  the  resemblance 
between  husband  and  wife  as  regards  tuberculosis  is  due  to  this 
fact,  and  not  to  infection.  ^ 

'  While  most  physicians  lay  too  great  stress  on  the  factor  of  infection,  this  mis- 
take is  by  no  means  universal.  Maurice  Fishberg,  for  example  (quoted  in  the 
Medical  Review  of  Reviews,  XXII,  8,  August,  1916)  states:  "For  many  years  the 
writer  was  physician  to  a  charitable  society,  having  under  his  care  annually  800  to 
1,000  consumptives  who  lived  in  poverty  and  want,  in  overcrowded  tenements,  hav- 
ing all  opfxjrtunities  to  infect  their  consorts;  in  fact  most  of  the  consumptives  shared 
their  bed  with  their  healthy  consorts.  Still,  very  few  cases  were  met  with  in  which 
tuberculosis  was  found  in  both  the  husband  and  wife.  Widows,  whose  husbands 
died  from  phthisis,  were  only  rarely  seen  to  develop  the  disease." 


NATURAL  SELECTION  127 

Again,  it  is  objected  that  the  infection  of  children  is  not  a 
family  matter,  but  due  to  tuberculous  cows'  milk^  how  then 
does  it  appear  equally  among  the  Japanese,  where  cows  are  not 
tuberculous  and  cow's  milk  rarely  used  as  an  infant  food:  or 
among  such  people  as  the  Esquimaux  and  Polynesians,  who 
have  never  seen  a  cow? 

But,  it  is  argued,  at  any  rate  bad  housing  and  unsanitary  con- 
ditions of  life  will  make  infection  easier  and  lower  the  resistance 
of  the  individual.  Perhaps  such  conditions  may  make  infection 
easier,  but  that  is  of  little  importance  considering  how  easy  it  is 
for  all  city  dwellers — for  the  population  as  a  whole.  The  ques- 
tion remains,  will  not  bad  housing  cause  a  greater  liability  to 
fatal  phthisis?  Will  not  destitution  and  its  attendant  conditions 
increase  the  probability  that  a  given  individual  will  succumb 
to  the  white  plague? 

Most  physicians  think  this  to  be  the  case,  but  they  have  not 
taken  the  pains  to  measure  the  respective  roles,  by  the  exact 
methods  of  modern  science.  S.  Adolphus  Knopf  of  New  York, 
an  authority  on  tuberculosis,  recognizes  the  importance  of  the 
heredity  factor,  but  says  that  after  this,  the  most  important 
predisposing  conditions  are  of  the  nature  of  unsanitary  schools, 
unsanitary  tenements,  unsanitary  factories  and  workshops. 
This  may  be  very  true;  these  conditions  may  follow  after  heredity 
in  importance — but  how  near  do  they  follow?  That  is  a  matter 
capable  of  fairly  accurate  measurement,  and  should  be  discussed 
with  figures,  not  generalities. 

Taking  the  case  of  destitution,  which  includes,  necessarily, 
most  of  the  other  evils  specified,  Pt^efessor  Pearson  measured 
the  correlation  with  liability  to  phthisis  a!td4ound  it  to  be  .02. 
The  correlation  for  direct  heredity — that  is,  tll».s resemblance 
between  parent  and  offspring — it  will  be  remembered,  is  .^o. 
As  compared  with  this,  the  environmental  factor  of  .02  is  utterly" 
insignificant.  It  seems  evident  that  whether  or  not  one  dies 
from  tuberculosis,  under  present-day  urban  conditions,  depends 
mainly  on  the  kind  of  constitution  one  has  inherited. 

There  is  no  escape,  then,  from  the  conclusion  that  in  any  in- 
dividual, death  from  tuberculosis  is  largely  a  matter  of  natural 


128  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

selection.    But  by  taking  a  longer  view,  one  can  actually  see 

the  change  to  which  natural  selection  is  one  of  the  contributors. 

The  following  table  shows  the  deaths  from  consujnption  in 

Massachusetts,  per  10,000  population: 

1851-60 39.9 

1861-70 34.9 

1871-80 32,7 

1881-90 29,2 

1891-1900 21.4 

1901 17-5 

1902 15.9 

F.  L.  Hoflfman  further  points  out  ^  that  in  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut,  1872-1911,  the  decline  in  the 
death-rate  from  tuberculosis  has  been  about  50%.  "The  evi- 
dence is  absolutely  conclusive  that  actually  as  well  as  relatively, 
the  mortality  from  tuberculosis  in  what  is  the  most  intensely 
industrial  area  of  America  has  progressively  diminished  during 
the  last  40  years." 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  great  increase  in  death  from  consump- 
tion in  this  area  began  in  the  decade  following  1840,  when  the 
large  Irish  immigration  began.  The  Irish  are  commonly  be- 
lieved to  be  particularly  susceptible  to  phthisis.  Crowded 
together  in  industrial  conditions,  they  rapidly  underwent  in- 
fection, and  their  weak  racial  resistance  led  to  a  high  death- 
rate.  The  weak  lines  of  heredity  were  rapidly  cut  off;  in  other 
words,  the  intensity  of  natural  selection  was  great,  for  a  while. 
The  result  was  to  leave  the  population  of  these  New  England 
states  much  more  resistant,  on  the  average,  than  it  was  before; 
and  as  the  Irish  immigration  soon  slowed  down,  and  no  new 
stocks  with  great  weakness  arrived,  tuberculosis  naturally 
tended  to  "burn  itself  out."  This  seems  to  be  a  partial  exnlana- 
tion  of  the  decline  in  the  death-rate  from  phthisis  in  New  Eng-_ 
land  during  the  last  half  century,  although  it  is  not  suggested 
that  it  represents  the  complete  explanation:  improved  methods 
of  treatment  and  sanitation  doubtless  played  their  part.     But 

'  In  Qth  Trans,  oi  American  Association  for  the  Study  and  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis, 
p.  117. 


NATURAL  SELECTION  129 

that  they  are  the  sole  cause  of  the  decline  is  made  highly  im- 
probable by  the  low  correlation  between  phthisis  and  environ- 
mental factors,  which  was  mentioned  above,  and  by  all  the  other 
biometric  study  of  tuberculosis,  which  has  proved  that  the  re- 
sults ascribed  to  hygiene,  including  sanitorium  treatment,  are  to 

That  tuberculosis  is  particularly  fatal  to  the  Negro  race  is 
well  known.  Even  to-day,  after  several  centuries  of  natural 
selection  in  the  United  States,  the  annual  death-rate  from  con- 
sumption among  Negroes  in  the  registration  area  is  431.Q  per 
100,000  population  (census  of  1900)  as  compared  with  170.5  for 
the  whites;  in  the  cities  alone  it  is  471.0.  That  overcrowding 
and  climate  can  not  be  the  sole  factors  is  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  the  Negro  race  has  been  decimated,  wherever  it  has 
met  tuberculosis,  "In  the  years  1803  and  18 10  the  British  gov- 
ernment imported  three  or  four  thousand  Negroes  from  Mo- 
zambique into  Ceylon  to  form  into  regiments,  and  of  these  in 
December,  1820,  there  were  left  just  440,  including  the  male  de- 
scendants. All  the  rest  had  perished  mainly  from  tuberculosis, 
and  in  a  country  where  the  disease  is  not  nearly  so  prevalent  as 
in  England."  ^  Archdall  Reid  has  pointed  out  ^  that  the 
American,  Polynesian  and  Australian  aborigines,  to  whom  tuber- 
culosis  was  unknown  before  the  advent  of  Europeans,  and  who 
had  therefore  never  been  selected  against  it,  could  not  survive 
its  advent:  they  were  killed  by  much  smaller  infections  than 
would  have  injured  a  European,  whose  stock  has  been  purged 
by  centuries  of  natural  selection. 

These  racial  histories  are  the  most  important  evidence  avail- 
able to  the  student  of  natural  selection  in  man.  The  conclusion 
to  be  drawn  from  them  seems  plain.  Natural  selection,  which 
has  in  the  past  never  had  an  opportunity  to  act  upon  the  Negro 
race  through  tuberculosis,  is  now  engaged  in  hastening,  at  a 
relatively  rapid  rate,  the  evolution  of  this  race  toward  immunity 
from  death  by  tuberculosis.    The  evolution  of  the  white  race 

^Geographical  and  Historical  Pathology  (New  Sydenham  Society,  1883),  Vol. 
Ill,  p.  266. 

*  Reid,  G.  Archdall,  The  Present  Evolution  of  Man,  and  The  Laws  of  Heredity. 


I30  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

on  this  line  is,  as  the  figures  show,  going  on  simultaneously, 
but  having  begun  centuries  earlier,  it  is  not  now  so  rapid.  The 
weakest  white  stocks  were  cut  off  hundreds  of  years  ago,  in 
Great  Britain  or  Europe;  those  of  the  black  race  are  only  now 
going.  Despite  all  the  efforts  of  medicine  and  sanitation,  it  is 
likely  that  the  Negro  death-rate  from  phthisis  will  continue  high 
for  some  years,  until  what  is  left  of  the  race  will  possess  a  degree 
of  resistance,  or  immunity,  not  much  inferior  to  that  of  the  whites 
among  whom  they  live.  The  blacks  in  North  America  now  must 
be  already  more  resistant  than  their  ancestors;  the  mulattoes 
descended  of  normal  healthy  unions  should  be  more  resistant 
than  the  pure  Negroes,  although  no  statistics  are  available  on 
the  point;  but  were  a  new  immigration  to  take  place  from  Africa 
to-day,  and  the  immigrants  to  be  put  into  villages  with  their 
Americanized  brethren,  the  high  death-rate  would  result. 

While  the  Negroes  were  thus  undergoing  the  radical  surgery 
of  natural  selection,  what  was  happening  to  the  aborigines  of 
America?  The  answer  of  history  is  unmistakable;  they  were 
meeting  the  same  fate,  in  an  even  more  violent  form.  Not  tuber- 
culosis alone,  but  small-pox,  measles,  alcohol  and  a  dozen  other 
importations  of  the  conquerors,  found  in  the  aborigines  of  the 
New  World  a  stock  which  had  never  been  selected  against 
these  diseases. 

It  is  the  custom  of  sentimentalists  sometimes  to  talk  as  if  the 
North  American  Indian  had  been  killed  off  by  the  white  man. 
So  he  was, — but  not  directly:  he  was  killed  off  by  natural  selec- 
tion, acting  through  the  white  man's  diseases  and  narcotics. 
In  1841  Catlin  wTote,  "Thirty  millions  of  white  men  are  now 
scuffling  for  the  goods  and  luxuries  of  life  over  the  bones  of  twelve 
millions  of  red  men,  six  millions  of  whom  have  fallen  victims 
to  small-pox."  Small-pox  is  an  old  story  to  the  white  race,  and 
the  death  of  the  least  resistant  strains  in  each  generation  has 
left  a  population  that  is  fairly  resistant.  It  was  new  to  the  na- 
tives of  America,  and  history  shows  the  result.  Alcohol,  too, 
counted  its  victims  by  the  thousand,  for  the  same  reason.  The 
process  of  natural  selection  among  the  North  American  Indians 
has  not  yet  stopped;  if  there  are  a  century  from  now  any  Indians 


NATURAL  SELECTION  131 

left,  they  will  of  necessity  belong  to  stocks  which  are  relatively 
resistant  to  alcohol  and  tuberculosis  and  the  other  widespread 
and  fatal  diseases  which  were  unknown  upon  this  continent  be- 
fore Columbus. 

The  decrease  of  natives  following  the  Spanish  conquest  of 
tropical  America  has  long  been  one  of  the  most  striking  events 
of  history.  Popular  historians  sometimes  speak  as  if  most  of  the 
native  population  had  been  killed  off  by  the  cruelty  of  the  con- 
quistadores.  Surely  such  talk  could  not  proceed  from  those 
who  are  familiar  with  the  action  of  natural  selection.  It  is  ob- 
vious that  when  the  Spaniard  brought  the  natives  together,  mak- 
ing them  work  in  mines  and  assemble  in  churches,  he  brought 
them  under  conditions  especially  favorable  for  infection  by  the 
new  diseases  which  he  had  brought.  The  aborigines  of  the  New 
World,  up  to  the  time  the  Spaniards  came,  had  undergone  no 
evolution  whatever  against  these  diseases;  consequently  the 
evolution  began  at  so  rapid  a  rate  that  in  a  few  centuries  only 
those  who  lived  in  out-of-the-way  places  remain  unscathed. 

The  same  story  is  repeated,  in  a  survey  of  the  history  of  the 
Pacific  Islands.  Even  such  a  disease  as  whooping-cough  carried 
off  adults  by  the  hundred.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  has  left  a 
graphic  picture  ^  of  natural  selection  at  work: 

"The  tribe  of  Hapaa,"  he  writes,  "is  said  to  have  numbered 
some  four  hundred  when  the  small-pox  came  and  reduced  them 
by  one-fourth.  Six  months  later  a  woman  developed  tubercular 
consumption;  the  disease  spread  like  fire  about  the  valley,  and 
in  less  than  a  year  two  survivors,  a  man  and  a  woman,  fled  from 
the  newly-created  solitude.  .  .  .  Early  in  the  year  of  my  visit, 
for  example,  or  late  the  year  before,  the  first  case  of  phthisis  ap- 
peared in  a  household  of  17  persons,  and  by  the  end  of  August, 
when  the  tale  was  told  me,  one  soul  survived,  a  boy  who 
had  been  absent  at  his  schooling." 

In  Tasmania  is  another  good  illustration  of  the  evolution  of 
a  race  proceeding  so  rapidly  as  to  be  fatal  to  the  race.    When 

"Ai  the  South  Seas,  p.  27;  quoted  by  G.  Archdall  Reid,  The  Principles  of  Heredity 
jjfew  York,  1905),  p.  183.  Dr.  Reid  has  discussed  the  role  of  disease  and  alcohol 
«\  Che  modern  evolution  of  man  more  fully  than  any  other  writer. 


132  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

the  first  English  settled  on  the  island,  in  1803,  the  native  p^op- 
ulation  consisted  of  several  thousand.  Tuberculosis  and  many 
other  new  diseases,  and,  most  of  all,  alcohol,  began  to  operate 
on  the  aborigines,  who  were  attracted  to  the  settlements  of  the 
whites.  In  a  quarter  of  a  century  there  were  only  a  few  hun- 
dred left.  Many,  of  course,  had  met  violent  deaths,  but  an 
enlightened  perusal  of  any  history  of  the  period,^  will  leave  no 
doubt  that  natural  selection  by  disease  was  responsible  for  most 
of  the  mortality.  By  1847  the  number  of  native  Tasmanians 
was  reduced  to  44,  who  were  already  unmistakably  doomed  by 
alcohol  and  bacteria.  When  the  last  full-blood  Tasmanian 
died  in  1876,  a  new  chapter  was  WTitten  in  the  story  of  the 
modem  evolution  of  the  human  race. 

No  such  stories  are  told  about  the  white  settlements  on  this 
continent,  even  before  the  days  of  quarantine  and  scientific 
medicine.  There  is  no  other  adequate  explanation  of  the  differ- 
ence, than  that  the  two  races  have  evolved  to  a  different  degree 
in  their  resistance  to  these  diseases.  It  is  easily  seen,  then,  that 
man's  evolution  is  going  on,  at  varying  rates  of  speed,  in  prob- 
ably all  parts  of  the  human  race  at  the  present  time. 

We  do  not  mean,  of  course,  to  suggest  that  all  the  natives  who 
have  died  in  the  New  World  since  the  landing  of  Columbus, 
have  died  because  the  evolution  of  their  race  had  not  proceeded 
so  far  in  certain  directions  as  had  that  of  their  conquerors.  But 
the  proportion  of  them  who  were  eliminated  for  that  reason  is 
certainly  very  large.  In  the  more  remote  parts  of  South  America 
the  process  is  still  going  on.  Recent  press  dispatches  have  car- 
ried the  account  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania's  Amazon 
Expedition,  under  the  direction  of  William  C.  Farrabee.  In  a 
letter  dated  March  16,  1916,  the  leader  told  of  the  discovery 
of  the  remains  of  the  tribe  of  Pikipitanges,  a  once  populous  tribe 
of  which  a  chief,  six  women  and  two  boys  alone  are  left.  The 
tribe  had  been  almost  wiped  out,  Dr.  Farabee  reported,  by  an 
epidemic  of  influenza! 

If  the  aborigines  of  the  New  World  succumb  to  the  diseases 

'  See,  lor  example,  John  West's  History  oj  Tasmania,  Vol.  II,  Launceston,  Tas- 
mania, 1852. 


NATURAL  SELECTION  133 

of  the  European,  it  is  not  less  true  that  the  European  succumbs 
to  diseases  against  which  his  race  has  not  been  selected.  The 
deadliness  of  yellow  fever  to  Americans  in  the  tropics,  and  the 
relative  immunity  of  Negroes,  is  familiar;  so  too  is  the  frequently 
fatal  result  of  the  African  tropical  fevers  on  the  white  man, 
while  the  natives  suffer  from  them  much  less,  having  been  made 
more  resistant  by  centuries  of  natural  selection. 

This  long  discussion  may  now  be  summarized.  We  dealt  with 
lethal  selection,  that  form  of  natural  selection  which  operates 
by  prematurely  killing  off  the  less  fit  and  leaving  the  more  fit 
to  survive  and  reproduce  their  kind.  It  is  of  course  understood 
that  the  word  "fit"  in  this  connection  does  not  necessarily  mean 
morally  or  mentally  superior,  but  merely  fit  for  the  particular 
environment.  In  a  community  of  rascals,  the  greatest  rascal 
might  be  the  fittest  to  survive.  In  the  slmns  of  a  modem  city 
the  Jewish  type,  stringently  selected  through  centuries  of  ghetto 
life,  is  particularly  fit  to  survive,  although  it  may  not  be  the 
physical  ideal  of  an  anthropologist. 

Two  forms  of  lethal  selection  were  distinguished,  one  depend- 
ing on  starvation  and  the  other  on  causes  not  connected  with  the 
food  supply.  Direct  starvation  is  not  a  factor  of  importance  in 
the  survival  of  most  races  during  most  of  the  time  at  the  present 
day  so  far  as  the  civilized  portion  of  the  world  is  concerned. 
But  disease  and  the  other  lethal  factors  not  connected  with  the 
food-supply,  through  which  natural  selection  acts,  are  still  of 
great  importance.  From  a  half  to  two-thirds  of  all  deaths  are 
of  a  selective  character,  even  under  favorable  conditions. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted,  however,  that  with  the  progress  of  medi- 
cine, and  the  diminution  of  unfit  material,  this  kind  of  natural 
'  selection  will  tend  to  become  less  and  less  widespread.  For  a 
long  time,  natural  selection  in  man  has  probably  done  little  to 
cause  marked  change  in  his  physical  or  mental  characteristics. 
Man's  interference  has  prevented.  In  recent  centuries  natural 
selection  has  probably  done  no  more  on  the  whole  than  keep  the 
race  where  it  was:  it  is  to  be  feared  that  it  has  not  even  done  that. 
It  is  doubtful  if  there  is  any  race  to-day  which  attains  the  physi- 
cal and  mental  average  of  the  Athenians  of  2,500  years  ago. 


134  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Lethal  natural  selection,  then,  has  been  and  still  is  a  factor 
of  great  importance  m  the  evolution  of  the  race,  but  at  present 
it  is  doing  little  or  nothing  that  promises  to  further  the  ideal  of 
^  Eugenics — race  betterment.  "^ 

But  lethal  natural  selection  is  only  half  the  story.  It  is  ob- 
vious that  if  the  constitution  of  a  race  can  be  altered  by  excess 
of  deaths  in  a  certain  class,  it  can  equally  be  altered  by  excess 
of  births  in  a  certain  class.  This  is  reproductive  selection,  which 
may  appear  in  either  one  of  two  forms.  If  the  individual  leayes 
few  or  no  progeny  because  of  his  failure  to  mate  at  J^e  prober 
time,  it  is  called  sexual  selection;  if,  however,  he  mates,  yet  leaves 
few  or  no  progeny  (as  compared  with  other  individuals),  i^  is 
called  fecundal  selection. 

'  feven  in  man,  the  importance  of  the  role  of  reproductive  selec- 
tion is  insuflSciently  understood;  in  the  lower  animals  scientists 
have  tended  still  more  to  undervalue  it.  As  a  fact,  no  species 
ordinarily  multiplies  in  such  numbers  as  to  exhaust  all  the  food 
available,  despite  the  teaching  of  Malthus  and  Darw'in  to  the 
contrary.  The  rate  of  reproduction  is  the  crux  of  natural  selec- 
tion; each  species  normally  has  such  a  reproduction  rate  as  will 
sufl5.ce  to  withstand  the  premature  deaths  and  sterility  of  some 
individuals,  and  yet  not  so  large  as  to  press  unduly  upon  the 
food  supply.  The  problem  of  natural  selection  is  a  problem  of 
the  adjustment  between  reproductive  rate  and  death-rate,  and 
the  struggle  for  subsistence  is  only  one  of  several  factors. 

While  the  reproductive  rate  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  char- 
acteristic which  has  its  adaptations  like  other  characteristics, 
it  has  one  peculiarity — its  increase  is  always  opposed  by  lethal 
selection.  The  chances  of  life  are  reduced  by  reproducing,  inas- 
much as  more  danger  is  entailed  by  the  extra  activities  of  court- ' 
ship,  and  later,  in  bearing  and  caring  for  the  young,  since  these 
duties  reduce  the  normal  wariness  of  individual  life.  The  repro- 
ductive rate,  therefore,  always  remains  at  the  lowest  point  which 
will  suffice  for  the  reproductive  needs  of  the  species.  For  this 
reason  alone  the  non-sustentative  form  of  selection  might  be  ex- 
pected to  be  the  predominant  kind. 

J.  T.  Gulick  and  Karl  Pearson  have  pointed  out  that  there  is 


NATURAL  SELECTION  135 

a  normal  conflict  between  natural  selection  and  fecundal  selec- 
tion. Fecundal  selection  is  said  by  them  to  be  constantly  tend- 
ing to  increase  the  reproductive  rate,  because  fecundity  is 
partly  a  matter  of  heredity,  and  the  fecund  parents  leave  more 
offspring  with  the  same  characteristic.  Lethal  selection,  on  the 
contrary,  constantly  asserts  its  power  to  reduce  the  reproductive 
rate,  because  the  reproductive  demands  on  the  parents  reduce 
their  chances  of  life  by  interference  with  their  natural  ability  of 
self-protection.  This  is  quite  true,  but  the  analysis  is  incomplete, 
for  an  increased  number  of  progeny  not  only  decreases  the  life 
chances  of  the  parents,  but  also  of  the  young,  by  reducing  the 
amount  of  care  they  receive. 

In  short,  lethal  selection  and  reproductive  selection  accom- 
plish the  same  end — a  change  in  the  constitution  of  the  species — 
by  different  means;  but  they  are  so  closely  linked  together  and 
balanced  that  any  change  in  the  operation  of  one  is  likely  to 
cause  a  change  in  the  operation  of  the  other.  This  will  be 
clearer  when  the  effect  of  reproductive  selection  is  studied  in 
man. 

Recalling  the  truism  that  most  human  characters  have  a 
hereditary  basis,  it  is  evident  that  the  constitution  of  society 
will  remain  stable  from  generation  to  generation,  only  if  each 
section  of  society  is  reproducing  at  the  same  rate  as  every  other 
(and  assuming,  for  the  moment,  that  the  death-rate  remains 
constant).  Then  if  the  birth-rate  of  one  part  of  the  population  is 
altered,  if  it  is  decreased,  for  example,  the  next  generation  will 
contain  proportionately  fewer  representatives  of  this  class,  the 
succeeding  generation  fewer  still,  and  so  on  indefinitely — unless 
a  selective  death-rate  is  operating  at  the  same  time.  It  is  well 
known  not  only  that  the  death-rate  varies  widely  in  different 
parts  of  the  population,  as  was  pointed  out  in  the  earlier  part 
of  this  chapter,  but  that  the  birth-rate  is  rarely  the  same  in  any 
two  sections  of  the  population.  Evidently,  therefore,  the 
make-up  of  society  must  necessarily  be  changing  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  It  will  be  the  object  of  the  rest  of  this  chap- 
ter to  investigate  the  ways  in  which  it  is  changing,  while  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  book  we  shall  point  out  some  of  the  ways  in 


136  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

which  it  might  be  changed  to  better  advantage  than  it  is  at 
present. 

Sexual  selection,  or  differential  success  in  marrying,  will  be 
discussed  at  some  length  in  Chapter  XI;  here  it  may  be  pointed 
out  that  the  number  who  fail  to  marry  is  very  much  greater 
than  one  often  realizes.  It  has  already  been  noted  that  a  large 
part  of  the  population  dies  before  it  reaches  the  age  of  mar- 
riage. Of  i,ooo  babies  bom  in  the  United  States,  only  750  will 
reach  the  average  age  of  marriage;  in  some  countries  half  of  the 
thousand  will  have  fallen  by  that  time.  These  dead  certainly 
will  leave  no  descendants;  but  even  of  the  survivors,  part  will 
fail  to  marry.  The  returns  of  the  thirteenth  U.  S.  census  showed 
that  of  the  males  45-64  years  of  age,  10%  were  single,  while 
1 1%  of  the  females,  35-44  years  old,  were  single.  Few  marriages 
will  take  place  after  those  ages.  Add  the  number  who  died  un- 
married previous  to  those  ages,  but  after  the  age  of  20,  and  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  at  least  one- third  of  the  persons  born  in. the 
United  States  die  (early  or  late)  without  liaving  married. 

The  consideration  of  those  who  died  before  the  age  of  mar- 
riage properly  comes  under  the  head  of  lethal  selection,  but  if 
attention  is  confined  to  those  who,  though  reaching  the  age  of 
marriage,  fail  to  marry,  sexual  selection  still  has  importance. 
For  instance,  it  is  generally  known  (and  some  statistical  proof 
will  be  given  in  Chapter  XI)  that  beauty  is  directly  associated 
with  the  chance  of  marriage.  The  pretty  girls  in  general  marry 
earher  as  well  in  larger  percentage;  many  of  the  ugly  ones  will 
never  find  mates.  Herbert  Spencer  argued  ingeniously  that 
beauty  is  associated  with  general  mental  and  moral  superiority, 
and  the  more  exact  studies  of  recent  years  have  tended  to  con- 
firm his  generalization.  A  recent,  but  not  conclusive,  investiga- 
tion ^  showed  beauty  to  be  correlated  with  intelligence  to  the 
extent  of  .34.  If  this  is  confirmed,  it  offers  a  good  illustration  of 
the  action  of  sexual  selection  in  furthering  the  progressive  evolu- 
tion of  the  race.  Miss  Gilmore,  studying  a  group  of  normal 
school  graduates,  found  a  direct  correlation  between  intelligence 
(as  judged  by  class  marks)  and  early  marriage  after  graduation. 
'  See  Hollingworth,  H.  L.,  Vocational  Psychology,  p.  170,  New  York,  1916. 


NATURAL  SELECTION  137 

Anyone  who  would  take  the  trouble  could  easily  investigate 
numerous  cases  of  this  sort,  which  would  show  the  efifect  of 
sexual  selection  in  perpetuating  desirable  qualities. 

But  sexual  selection  no  longer  has  the  importance  that  it  once 
had,  for  nowadays  the  mere  fact  of  marriage  is  not  a  measure  of 
fecundity,  to  the  extent  that  it  once  was.  In  the  old  days  of 
unlimited  fecundity,  the  early  marriage  of  a  beautiful,  or  in- 
telligent, woman  meant  a  probable  perpetuation  of  her  endow- 
ments; but  at  present,  when  artificial  restraint  of  fertility  is  so 
widespread,  the  result  does  not  follow  as  a  matter  of  course: 
and  it  is  evident  that  the  race  is  little  or  not  at  all  helped  by  the 
early  marriage  of  an  attractive  woman,  if  she  has  too  few  or 
no  children. 

Fecundal  selection^  then,  is  becoming  the  important  phase  of 
reproductive  selection,  in  the  evolution  of  civilized  races.  The 
differential  birth-rate  is,  as  we  have  often  insisted,  the  all- 
important  factor  of  eugenics,  and  it  merits  careful  consideration 
from  all  sides. 

Such  consideration  is  made  difl&cult  by  the  inadequate  vital 
statistics  of  the  United  States  (which  ranks  with  Turkey  and 
China  in  this  respect) ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  birth-rate  as 
a  whole  is  low,  as  compared  with  that  of  other  countries;  al- 
though as  a  whole  it  is  not  dangerously  low  and  there  is,  of 
course,  no  necessary  evil  in  a  low  birth-rate,  of  itself,  if  the 
quality  be  satisfactory.  The  U.  S.  Census  tabulation  for  191 5 
gives  the  following  comparison  of  the  number  of  babies  born 
alive  each  year,  per  1,000  population,  in  various  countries; 

Russia  in  Europe  (igog) 44 .  o 

Japan  (1911) 34- 1 

Italy  (1913) 31-7 

Austria  (191 2) 31.3 

Spain  (1913) 30.4 

Austria  (1913) 28.3 

German  Empire  (1912) 28.3 

Holland  (1913) 28. i 

Denmark  (1913) 25 . 6 

Norway  (1913) 25.3 

United  States  (registration  area  only,  1915) 24.9 


138  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

England  and  Wales  (1913) 24 . 1 

Sweden  (191 2) 23.8 

Switzerland  (1913) = 23 .  i 

Belgium  (1912) 22.6 

France  (1912) 19.0 

The  United  States  birth-rate  may,  on  its  face,  appear  high 
enough;  but  its  face  does  not  show  that  this  height  is  due  largely 
to  the  fecundity  of  immigrant  women.  Statistics  to  prove  this 
are  given  in  Chapter  XIII,  but  may  be  supplemented  here  by 
some  figures  from  Pittsburgh. 

Ward  7,  in  that  city,  contains  the  homes  of  many  well-to-do, 
and  contains  more  representatives  of  the  old  American  stock 
than  any  other  ward  in  the  city,  having  56.4%  of  residents  who 
are  native  bom  of  native  parents  while  the  majority  of  the 
residents  in  nearly  all  the  other  wards  in  the  city  are  either 
themselves  foreign-bom,  or  the  offspring  of  foreign-bom  parents. 

Ward  7  has  the  lowest  birth-rate  and  the  lowest  rate  of  net  in- 
crease of  any  ward  in  the  city. 

With  this  may  be  contrasted  the  sixth  ward,  which  runs  along 
the  south  bank  of  the  Allegheny  river.  It  is  one  of  the  great 
factory  districts  of  the  city,  but  also  contains  a  large  number  of 
homes.  Nearly  3,000  of  its  14,817  males  of  voting  age  are 
illiterate.  Its  death-rate  is  the  highest  in  the  city.  Almost 
nine-tenths  of  its  residents  are  either  foreigners  or  the  children 
of  foreigners.  Its  birth-rate  is  three  times  that  of  the  seventh 
ward. 

Taking  into  account  all  the  wards  of  the  city,  it  is  found  that 
the  birth-rate  rises  as  one  considers  the  wards  which  are  marked 
by  a  large  foreign  population,  illiteracy,  poverty  and  a  high  death- 
rate.  On  the  other  hand,  the  birth-rate  falls  as  one  passes  to 
the  wards  that  have  most  native-bom  residents,  most  education, 
most  prosperity — and,  to  some  extent,  education  and  prosperity 
denote  efficiency  and  eugenic  value.  For  27  wards  there  is  a 
high  negative  correlation  ( — .673),  between  birth-rate  and  per- 
centage of  native-bom  of  native  parents  in  the  population.  The 
correlation  between  illiteracy  and  net  increase  '  is  +.731. 

^  Net  increase  here  refers  only  to  the  first  year  of  life,  and  was  computed  by  de- 


NATURAL  SELECTION  139 

The  net  increase  of  Pittsburgh's  population,  therefore,  is 
greatest  where  the  percentage  of  foreign-bom  and  of  illiterates  is 
greatest. 

The  significance  of  such  figures  in  natural  selection  must  be 
evident.  Pittsburgh,  like  probably  all  large  cities  in  civilized 
countries,  breeds  from  the  bottom.  The  lower  a  class  is  in  the 
scale  of  intelligence,  the  greater  is  its  reproductive  contribu- 
tion. Recalling  that  intelligence  is  inherited,  that  like  begets 
like  in  this  respect,  one  can  hardly  feel  encouraged  over  the 
quality  of  the  population  of  Pittsburgh,  a  few  generations 
hence. 

Of  course  these  illiterate  foreign  laborers  are,  from  a  eugenic 
point  of  view,  not  wholly  bad.  The  picture  should  not  be 
painted  any  blacker  than  the  original.  Some  of  these  ignorant 
stocks,  in  another  generation  and  with  decent  surroundings,  will 
furnish  excellent  citizens. 

But  taken  as  a  whole,  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  the 
fecund  stocks  of  Pittsburgh,  with  their  illiteracy,  squalor  and 
tuberculosis,  their  high  death-rates,  their  economic  straits,  are  as 
good  eugenic  material  as  the  families  that  are  dying  out  in  the 
more  substantial  residence  section  which  their  fathers  created  in 
the  eastern  part  of  the  city. 

And  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  the  city,  and  the  nation, 
of  the  future,  would  not  benefit  by  a  change  in  the  distribution 
of  births,  whereby  more  would  come  from  the  seventh  ward  and 
its  like,  and  fewer  from  the  sbcth  and  its  like. 

Evidently,  there  is  no  difficulty  about  seeing  this  form  of 
natural  selection  at  work,  and  at  work  in  such  a  way  as  greatly 
to  change  the  character  of  one  section  of  the  species.  For  com- 
parison, some  figures  are  presented  from  European  sources.  In 
the  French  war  budget  of  191 1  it  appears  that  from  1,000  women 
between  the  ages  of  15  and  50,  in  different  districts  of  Paris, 
the  number  of  yearly  births  was  as  follows: 

ducting  the  deaths  under  one  year,  in  a  ward,  from  the  number  of  births  in  the  same 
ward  for  the  same  year.  For  details  of  this  study  of  the  Pittsburgh  vital  statistics, 
see  the  Journal  of  Heredity,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  178-183  (April,  1917). 


I40  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Very  poor io8 

Poor 99 

Well-to-do. . . .  -. ; 72 

Very  prosperous 65 

Rich 53 

Very  rich 35 

Disregarding  the  last  class  altogether,  it  is  yet  evident  that 
while  the  mother  in  a  wealthy  home  bears  two  children,  the 
mother  in  the  slums  bears  four.  It  is  evident  then  that  in  Paris 
at  the  present  time  reproductive  selection  is  changing  the  mental 
and  moral  composition  of  the  population  at  a  rapid  rate,  which 
can  not  be  very  materially  reduced  even  if  it  is  found  that  the 
death-rate  in  the  poorer  districts  is  considerably  greater  than 
it  is  on  the  more  fashionable  boulevards. 

J.  Bertillon  has  brought  together  ^  in  a  similar  way  data  from 
a  number  of  cities,  showing  the  following  birth-rates: 

Berlin  Vienna  London 

Very  poor  quarters 157 200 147 

Poor  quarters 129 164 140 

Comfortable  quarters 114 155 107 

Very  comfortable 96 153 107 

Rich 63 107 87 

Very  rich 47 81 63 

Average 102 153 109 

Obviously,  in  all  these  cases  reproductive  selection  will  soon 
bring  about  such  a  change  in  the  character  of  the  population, 
that  a  much  larger  part  of  it  than  at  present  will  have  the  heredi- 
tary characteristics  of  the  poorer  classes  and  a  much  smaller 
part  of  it  than  at  present  the  hereditary  characteristics  of  the 
well-to-do  classes. 

David  Heron  and  others  have  recently  studied  ^  the  relation 
which  the  birth-rate  in  different  boroughs  of  London  bears  to 
their  social  and  economic  conditions.  Using  the  correlation 
method,  they  found  "that  in  London  the  birth-rate  per  1,000 

'  Quoted  from  Newsholme  and  Stevenson,  The  Decline  of  Human  Fertility,  Lon- 
don, 1906. 

^  Heron,  David,  On  the  Relation  of  Fertility  in  Man  to  Social  Stalw,  London,  iqo6. 
The  account  is  quoted  from  Schuster,  Edgar,  Eugenics,  pp.  220-  221,  London,  1913, 


NATURAL  SELECTION  141 

married  women,  aged  15  to  54,  is  highest  where  the  conditions 
show  the  greatest  poverty — namely,  in  quarters  where  pawn- 
brokers abound,  where  unsicilled  labor  is  the  principal  source  of 
income,  where  consumption  is  most  common  and  most  deadly, 
where  pauperism  is  most  rife,  and,  finally,  where  the  greatest 
proportion  of  the  children  born  die  in  infancy.  The  correlation 
coefficients  show  that  the  association  of  these  evil  conditions 
with  the  relative  number  of  children  born  is  a  very  close  one; 
and  if  the  question  is  put  in  another  way,  and  the  calculations  ' 
are  based  on  measures  of  prosperity  instead  of  on  measures  of 
poverty,  a  high  degree  of  correlation  is  found  between  prosperity 
and  a  low  birth-rate. 

"It  must  not  be  supposed  that  a  high  rate  of  infant  mortality, 
which  almost  invariably  accompanies  a  high  birth-rate,  either 
in  London  or  elsewhere,  goes  far  toward  counteracting  the  effects 
of  the  differential  birth-rate.  Where  infant  mortality  is  highest 
the  average  number  of  children  above  the  age  of  two  for  each 
married  woman  is  highest  also,  and  although  the  chances  of 
death  at  all  ages  are  greater  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  poorer 
quarters,  the[r  rate  of  natural  increase  remains  considerably 
higher  than  that  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  richer. 

"From  the  detailed  study  of  the  figures  made  by  Newsholme 
and  Stevenson,  conclusions  essentially  the  same  as  those  of 
Heron  can  be  drawn.  .  .  .  Their  first  step  was  to  divide  the 
London  boroughs  mto  six  groups  according  to  the  average 
number  of  domestic  servants  for  100  families  in  each.  This  is 
probably  as  good  a  measure  of  prosperity  as  any  other.  They 
then  determined  the  total  birth-rate  of  the  population  in  each 
group,  and  arrived  at  the  following  figures: 
Group 

I.  10  domestic  servants  for  100  families 34-97 


II.  10-20 38 

in.  20-30 25 

IV.  30-40 25 

V.  40-60 25 

VI.  Over  60 18 


■24 

"In  order  to  find  out  how  far  the  differences  shown  by  these 
figures  are  due  to  differences  in  the  percentage  of  women  who 


142  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

marry  in  each  group  and  the  age  at  which  they  marry,  they 
corrected  the  figures  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  them  represent 
what  the  birth-rates  would  be  in  each  group,  if  the  proportion 
of  wives  of  each  age  to  the  whole  population  comprising  the 
group  was  the  same  as  it  is  in  the  whole  of  England  and  Wales. 
The  corrected  birth-rates  thus  obtained  were  as  follows: 

Group 

I • 3156 

n 25.82 

III 25.63 

IV 25.50 

V 25.56 

VI 20.45 

"It  will  readily  be  seen  that  the  effect  of  the  correction  has 
been  to  reduce  the  difference  between  the  two  extreme  groups 
by  about  one-third,  showing  that  to  this  extent  it  is  due  to  the 
way  in  which  they  differ  as  to  the  average  age  and  number  of  the 
women  who  marry.  Further,  Groups  II,  III,  IV  and  V  have  all 
been  brought  to  about  the  same  level,  with  a  corrected  birth- 
rate about  halfway  between  the  highest  and  the  lowest.  This 
shows  that  there  is  no  gradual  decrease  in  fertility  associated 
with  a  gradually  increasing  grade  of  prosperity,  but  that  three 
sharply  divided  classes  may  be  distinguished :  a  very  poor  class 
with  a  high  degree  of  fertility,  to  which  about  a  quarter  of  the 
population  of  London  belong,  a  rich  class  with  a  low  degree 
of  fertiUty,  and  a  class  intermediate  in  both  respects." 

"  Eugenics  is  less  directly  concerned  with  this  side  of  the  ques- 
tion that  with  the  relative  rate  of  increase  of  the  different  classes. 
This  may  be  found  for  the  six  groups  in  the  usual  way  by  de- 
ducting the  death-rate  from  the  birth-rate.  The  following 
figures  for  the  rate  of  natural  increase  are  then  obtained : 

Group 

1 16.56 

II 13-89 

III 11.43 

IV 13.81 

V 10.29 

VI S.79 


NATURAL  SELECTION  143 

"The  figures  show  in  a  manner  which  hardly  admits  of  any 
doubt  that  in  London  at  any  rate  the  inhabitants  of  the  poorest 
quarters — over  a  milHon  in  number — are  reproducing  themselves 
at  a  much  greater  rate  than  the  more  well-to-do." 

A  research  on  similar  lines  by  S.  R.  Steinmetz  ^  in  Holland 
shows  that  the  average  number  of  children  in  the  lowest  class 
families  is  5.44.  People  in  industry  or  small  trade,  skilled  me- 
chanics and  professors  of  theology  have  five  children  to  the  fam- 
ily; in  other  classes  the  number  is  as  follows: 

Artists 4 .  30 

Well-to-do  Commercial  Classes 4-  27 

High  OflBcials 4.00 

University  Professors  (excluding  theological) 3  5° 

23  Scholars  and  Artists  of  the  first  rank 2 .  60 

It  is  not  hard  to  see  that  the  next  generation  in  Holland  is 
likely  to  have  proportionately  fewer  gifted  individuals  than  has 
the  present  one. 

Fortunately,  it  is  very  probable  that  the  differential  birth- 
rate is  not  of  such  ominous  import  in  rural  districts  as  it  is  in 
cities,  although  some  of  the  tribes  of  degenerates  which  Uve  in 
the  country  show  birth-rates  of  four  to  six  children  per  wife." 
But  in  the  more  highly  civilized  nations  now,  something  like  a 
half  of  the  population  lives  in  urban  districts,  and  the  startling 
extent  to  which  these  urban  populations  breed  from  the  bottom 
involves  a  disastrous  change  in  the  balance  of  population  within 
a  few  generations,  unless  it  is  in  some  way  checked. 

Just  how  great  the  change  may  be,  statistically,  has  been 
emphasized  by  Karl  Pearson,  who  points  out  that  "50%  of  the 
married  population  provide  75%  of  the  next  generation,"  owing 
to  the  number  of  deaths  before  maturity,  the  number  of  celi- 

'  Ztschft.f.  Sozialwissenschaft,  VII  (1904),  pp.  i  ff. 

^  Two  of  the  best  known  of  these  tribes  are  the  "Jukes"  and  "Nams."  "An 
analysis  of  the  figures  of  the  Jukes  in  regard  to  the  birth-rate  shows  that  of  a  total 
of  403  married  Juke  women,  330  reproduced  one  or  more  children  and  73  were  barren. 
The  average  fecundity,  counting  those  who  are  barren,  is  3.526  children  per  female. 
The  330  women  having  children  have  an  average  fecundity  of  4.306  as  compared 
with  that  of  4.025,  based  on  120  reproducing  women  in  the  Nam  family." — Esta- 
brook,  A.  H.,  The  Jukes  in  IQ15,  p.  51,  Washington,  Carnegie  Institution,  1916. 


144  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

bates  and  the  number  of  childless  marriages.  "The  same  rule 
may  be  expressed  in  another  way:  50%  of  the  next  generation 
is  produced  by  25%  of  the  married  population."  At  this  rate 
in  a  few  generations  the  less  eflScient  and  socially  valuable,  with 
their  large  families,  will  overwhelm  the  more  eflScient  and  so- 
cially valuable,  and  their  small  famihes. 

Fecundal  selection  is  at  work  to-day  on  a  large  scale,  changing 
the  character  of  the  population,  and  from  a  eugenic  point  of  view 
changing  it  for  the  worse.  Fortunately,  it  is  not  impossible  to 
arrest  this  change. 

But,  it  may  be  objected,  is  not  this  change  merely  "the  sur- 
A'ival  of  the  fittest?  "  In  a  sense,  yes;  and  it  is  necessary  that  the 
more  intelligent  classes  should  make  themselves  "fitter"  to 
survive,  by  a  change  of  attitude  toward  reproduction.  But  the 
dying-out  of  the  intellectually  superior  part  of  the  population  is 
a  pathological  condition,  not  a  part  of  normal  evolution;  for 
barring  artificial  interference  with  the  birth-rate,  fertility  has 
been  found  to  go  hand  in  hand  with  general  superiority.  This 
demonstration  is  due  to  F.  A.  Woods'  study  ^  of  608  members 
of  the  royal  families  of  Europe,  among  whom,  for  reasons  of 
state,  large  families  are  desired,  and  among  whom  there  has 
probably  been  little  restraint  on  the  birth-rate.  Averaging 
the  ratings  of  his  individuals  from  grade  I,  the  mentally  and 
physically  very  inferior,  to  grade  10,  the  mentally  and  physically 
very  superior,  he  found  that  the  number  of  children  produced 
and  brought  to  maturity  increased  in  a  fairly  direct  ratio.  His 
figures  are  as  follows: 

Both  Sexes  (Averaged) 

Grades  for  virtues i  i  3  4  5  6  7  8  g         10 

Average  number  of  adult 
children 1.66    2.86    a.gg    2.41    3.44    3.40    305    303    3.93    3.83 

Investigations  of  Karl  Pearson  and  Alexander  Graham  Bell  ^ 
show  that  fecundity  and  longevity  are  associated.     It  follows 

'  Woods,  Frederick  Adams,  Ilcrcdily  in  Royally,  New  York,  1906. 

*  Beeton,  Miss  M.,  Yule,  G.  U.,  and  Pearson,  Karl,  On  the  Correlation  between 
Duration  of  Life  and  the  Number  of  Offspring,  Proc.  R.  S.  London,  67  (1900),  pp.  159- 
J71.  The  material  consisted  of  English  and  American  Quaker  families.  Dr.  Bell's 
work  is  based  on  old  American  families,  and  has  not  yet  been  published. 


NATURAL  SELECTION  US 

that  the  mentally  and  morally  superior,  who  are  the  most  fec- 
und, are  also  the  longest- live3r;  and  as  this  longevity  is  largely 
due  to  inheritance  it  follows  that,  under  natural  conditions,  the 
standard  of  the  stratum  of  society  under  consideration  would 
gradually  rise,  in  respect  to  longevity,  in  each  generation. 

Such  is  probably  one  of  the  methods  by  which  the  human  race 
has  gradually  increased  its  level  of  desirable  characters  in  each 
generation.  The  desirable  characters  were  associated  with 
each  other,  and  also  with  fecundity.  The  desirable  characters 
are  still  associated  with  each  other,  but  their  association  with 
fecundity  is  now  negative.  It  is  in  this  change  that  eugenics 
finds  justification  for  its  existence  as  a  propaganda.  Its  object 
is  to  restore  the  positive  correlation  between  desirable  characters 
and  fecundity,  on  which  the  progressive  evolution  of  the  race 
depends. 

The  bearing  of  natural  selection  on  the  present-day  evolution 
of  the  human  race,  particularly  in  the  United  States  of  America, 
must  be  reviewed  in  a  few  closing  jiaragraphs. 

Selection  by  death  may  result  either  from  inadequate  food 
supply,  or  from  some  other  lethal  factor.  The  former  type,  al- 
though something  of  a  bugaboo  ever  since  the  time  of  Malthus, 
has  in  reality  relatively  little  effect  on  the  human  race  at  present. 
Non-sustentative  lethal  selection  in  man  is  operating  chiefly 
through  zymotic  diseases  and  the  bad  hygiene  of  the  mentally 
inferior. 

Reproductive  selection  is  increasingly  effective  and  its  action 
is  such  as  to  cause  grave  alarm  both  through  the  failure  of  some 
to  marry  properly  (sexual  selection)  and  the  failure  of  some  to 
bear  enough  children,  while  others  bear  too  many  (fecundal 
selection).  It  is  obvious  that  the  racial  result  of  this  process 
will  depend  on  what  kind  of  people  bear  and  rear  the  most 
children;  and  it  has  been  shown  that  in  general  the  larger  fami- 
lies are  in  the  section  of  the  population  that  makes  fewer  con- 
tributions to  human  prosperity  and  happiness,  while  those  en- 
dowed with  great  gifts,  who  ought  to  be  transmitting  them  to 
their  children,  are  in  many  cases  not  even  reproducing  their 
own  number. 


146  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Natural  selection  raised  man  from  apehood  to  his  present 
estate.  It  is  still  operating  on  him  on  a  large  scale,  in  several 
ways,  but  in  none  of  these  ^yays  is  it  nawjdoing  much  actually 
to  improve  the  race,  and  in  some  ways,  owing  to  man's  own 
interference,  it  is  rapidly  hastening  race  degeneracy. 


CHAPTER  VII 

ORIGIN  AND  GROWTH  OF  THE  EUGENICS  MOVE- 
MENT 

"Eugenics,"  wrote  Francis  Galton,  who  founded  the  science 
and  coined  the  name,  "is  the  study  of  agencies  under  social 
control  that  may  improve  or  impair  the  racial  qualities  of  future 
generations,  either  physically  or  mentally."  The  definition  is 
universally  accepted,  but  by  its  use  of  the  word  "study"  it 
defines  a  pure  science,  and  the  present  book  is  concerned  rather 
with  the  application  of  such  a  science.  Accepting  Gallon's 
definition,  we  shall  for  our  purposes  slightly  extend  it  by  saying 
that  applied  eugenics  embraces  all  such  measures,  in  use  or  pros- 
pect either  individually  or  collectively,  as  may  improve  or 
impair  the  racial  qualities  of  future  generations  of  man,  either 
physically  or  mentally,  whether  or  not  this  was  the  avowed  pur- 
pose. 

It  is  one  of  the  newest  of  sciences.  It  was  practically  forced 
into  existence  by  logical  necessity.  It  is  certainly  here  to  stay, 
and  it  demands  the  right  to  speak,  in  many  cases  to  cast  the 
deciding  vote,  on  some  of  the  most  important  questions  that 
confront  society. 

The  science  of  eugenics  is  the  natural  result  of  the  spread  and 
acceptance  of  organic  evolution,  following  the  publication  of 
Darwin's  work  on  The  Origin  of  Species  by  Means  of  Natural 
Selection,  in  1859.  It  took  a  generation  for  his  ideas  to  win  the 
day;  but  then  they  revolutionized  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
civilized  world.  Man  came  to  realize  that  the  course  of  nature 
is  regular;  that  the  observed  sequences  of  events  can  be  de- 
scribed in  formulas  which  are  called  natural  laws;  he  learned 
that  he  could  achieve  great  results  in  plant  and  animal  breed- 
ing by  working  in  harmony  with  these  laws.  Then  the  question 
logically  arose,  "Is  not  man  himself  subject  to  these  same  laws? 

147 


148  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Can  he  not  use  his  knowledge  of  them  to  improve  his  own  species, 
as  he  has  been  more  or  less  consciously  improving  the  plants 
and  animals  that  were  of  most  value  to  him,  for  many  centu- 
ries? " 

The  evolutionist  answered  both  these  questions  affirmatively. 
However  great  may  be  the  superiority  of  his  mind,  man  is  first 
of  all  an  animal,  subject  to  the  natural  laws  that  govern  other 
animals.  He  can  learn  to  comply  with  these  laws;  he  can,  there- 
fore, take  an  active  share  in  furthering  the  process  of  evolution 
toward  a  higher  life. 

That,  briefly,  is  the  scope  of  the  science  of  eugenics,  as  its 
founder.  Sir  Francis  Galton,  conceived  it.  "Now  that  this  new 
animal,  man,  finds  himself  somehow  in  existence,  endowed  with 
a  little  power  and  intelligence,"  Galton  wrote  30  years  ago, 
"he  ought,  I  submit,  to  awake  to  a  fuller  knowledge  of  his  rel- 
atively great  position,  and  begin  to  assume  a  deliberate  part 
in  furthering  the  great  work  of  evolution.  He  may  infer  the 
course  it  is  bound  to  pursue,  from  his  observation  of  that  which 
it  has  already  followed,  and  he  might  devote  his  modicum  of 
power,  intelligence  and  kindly  feeling  to  render  its  future  prog- 
ress less  slow  and  painful.  Man  has  already  furthered  evolu- 
tion very  considerably,  half  consciously,  and  for  his  own  per- 
sonal advantages,  but  he  has  not  yet  risen  to  the  conviction  that 
it  is  his  religious  duty  to  do  so,  deliberately  and  systematically." 

But,  it  may  well  be  asked,  how  does  this  sudden  need  for  eu- 
genics arise,  when  the  world  has  gone  along  without  it  for  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  years  in  the  past,  and  the  human  race  has 
made  the  great  ascent  from  an  ape-like  condition  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  such  a  science  as  eugenics  was  never  dreamed  of? 

For  answer  recall  that  natural  selection,  which  is  mainly  re- 
sponsible for  bringing  man  to  his  present  situation,  has  worked 
chiefly  through  a  differential  death-rate.  The  less  fit  die:  the 
more  fit  survive.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  society,  man  inter- 
fered little  with  natural  selection.  But  during  the  last  century 
the  increase  of  the  philanthropic  spirit  and  the  progress  of  medi- 
cine have  done  a  great  deal  to  interfere  with  the  selective  proc- 
ess.    In  some  ways,  selection  in  the  human  race  has  almost 


ORIGIN  AND  GROWTH  OF  MOVEMENT        149 

ceased;  in  many  ways  it  is  actually  reversed,  that  is,  it  results 
in  the  survival  of  the  inferior  rather  than  the  superior.  In  the 
olden  days  the  criminal  was  summarily  executed,  the  weakly 
child  died  soon  after  birth  through  lack  of  proper  care  and  medi- 
cal attention,  the  insane  were  dealt  with  so  violently  that  if  they 
were  not  killed  by  the  treatment  they  were  at  least  left  hopelessly 
"incurable"  and  had  little  chance  of  becoming  parents.  Harsh 
measures,  all  of  these,  but  they  kept  the  germ-plasm  of  the  race 
reasonably  purified. 

To-day,  how  is  it?  The  inefficients,  the  wastrels,  the  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  cripples  are  carefully  preserved  at  public 
expense.  The  criminal  is  turned  out  on  parole  after  a  few  years, 
to  become  the  father  of  a  family.  The  insane  is  discharged  as 
"cured,"  again  to  take  up  the  duties  of  citizenship.  The  feeble- 
minded child  is  painfully  "educated,"  often  at  the  expense  of 
his  normal  brother  or  sister.  In  short,  the  undesirables  of  the 
race,  with  whom  the  bloody  hand  of  natural  selection  would  have 
made  short  work  early  in  life,  are  now  nursed  along  to  old  age. 

Of  course,  one  would  not  have  it  otherwise  with  respect  to  the 
prolongation  of  life.  To  expose  deformed  children  as  the 
Spartans  did  would  outrage  our  moral  sentiments;  to  chloroform 
the  incurable  is  a  proposition  that  almost  every  one  condemns. 

But  this  philanthropic  spirit,  this  zealous  regard  for  the  in- 
terests of  the  unfortunate,  which  is  rightly  considered  one  of 
the  highest  manifestations  of  Christian  civilization,  has  in  many 
cases  benefitted  the  few  at  the  expense  of  the  many.  The  pres- 
ent generation,  in  making  its  own  life  comfortable,  is  leaving  a 
staggering  bill  to  be  paid  by  posterity. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  eugenics  comes  in  and  demands  that  a 
distinction  be  made  between  the  interests  of  the  individual  and 
the  interests  of  the  race.  It  does  not  yield  to  any  one  in  its 
solicitude  for  the  individual  unfortunate;  but  it  says,  "His 
happiness  in  life  does  not  need  to  include  leaving  a  family  of 
children,  inheritors  of  his  defects,  who  if  they  were  able  to  think 
might  curse  him  for  begetting  them  and  curse  society  for  allow- 
ing them  to  be  born."  And  looking  at  the  other  side  of  the 
problem,  eugenics  says  to  the  young  man  and  young  woman, 


ISO  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

"You  should  enjoy  the  greatest  happiness  that  love  can  bring  to 
a  life.  But  something  more  is  expected  of  you  than  a  selfish, 
short-sighted  indifiference  to  all  except  yourselves  in  the  world. 
When  you  understand  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  the  race, 
you  will  find  your  greatest  happiness  only  in  a  marriage  which 
will  result  in  a  family  of  worthy  children.  You  are  temporarily  a 
custodian  of  the  inheritance  of  the  whole  past;  it  is  far  more  dis- 
graceful for  you  to  squander  or  ruin  this  heritage,  or  to  regard  it 
as  intended  solely  for  your  individual,  selfish  gratification,  than 
it  would  be  for  you  to  dissipate  a  fortune  in  money  which  you 
had  received,  or  to  betray  any  trust  which  had  been  confided  to 
you  by  one  of  your  fellow  men," 

Such  is  the  teaching  of  eugenics.  It  is  not  wholly  new.  The 
early  Greeks  gave  much  thought  to  it,  and  with  the  insight 
which  characterized  them,  they  rightly  put  the  emphasis  on  the 

/constructive  side;  they  sought  to  breed  better  men  and  women, 
not  merely  to  accomplish  a  work  of  hygiene,  to  lessen  taxes,  and 
reduce  suffering,  by  reducing  the  number  of  unfortunates  among 
them.  As  early  as  the  first  half  of  the  sixth  century  B.  C.  the 
Greek  poet  Theognis  of  Megara  wrote:  "We  look  for  rams  and 
asses  and  stallions  of  good  stock,  and  one  believes  that  good  will 
come  from  good;  yet  a  good  man  minds  not  to  wed  an  evil 
daughter  of  an  evil  sire,  if  he  but  give  her  much  wealth.  .  .  . 
Wealth  confounds  our  stock.  Marvel  not  that  the  stock  of  our 
folk  is  tarnished,  for  the  good  is  mingling  with  the  base."  A 
century  later  eugenics  was  discussed  in  some  detail  by  Plato, 
who  suggested  that  the  state  intervene  to  mate  the  best  with  the 
best,  and  the  worst  with  the  worst;  the  former  should  be  en- 
couraged to  have  large  families,  and  their  children  should  be 
reared  by  the  government,  while  the  children  of  the  unfit  were 
to  be,  as  he  says,  "put  away  in  some  mysterious,  unknown 
places,  as  they  should  be."  Aristotle  developed  the  idea  on 
political  lines,  being  more  interested  in  the  economic  than  the 
biological  aspects  of  marriage;  but  he  held  firmly  to  the  doctrine 
that  the  state  should  feel  free  to  intervene  in  the  interests  of 
reproductive  selection. 
For  nearly  two  thousand  years  after  this,  conscious  eugenic 


ORIGIN  AND  GROWTH  OF  MOVEMENT        151 

ideals  were  largely  ignored.  Constant  war  reversed  njitnrfll 
selection,  as  it  is  doing  to-day,  by  killing  off  the  physically  fit 
and  leaving  the  relatively  unfit  to  reproduce  the  race;  while  mon- 
asticism  and  the  enforced  celibacy  of  the  priesthood  performed  a 
similar  office  for  many  of  the  mentally  superior,  attracting  them 
to  a  career  in  which  they  could  leave  no  posterity.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  last  century  a  germ  of  modem  eugenics  is  visible 
in  Malthus'  famous  essay  on  population,  in  which  he  directed 
attention  to  the  importance  of  the  birth-rate  for  human  welfare, 
since  this  essay  led  Darwin  and  Wallace  to  enunciate  the  theory 
of  natural  selection,  and  to  point  out  clearly  the  effects  of  ar- 
tificial selection.  It  is  really  on  Darwin's  work  that  the  modem 
science  of  eugenics  is  based,  and  it  owes  its  beginning  to 
Darvvin's  cousin,  Francis  Galton. 

Galton  was  bom  in  1822,  studied  mathematics  and  medicine, 
traveled  widely,  attained  fame  as  an  explorer  in  South  Africa, 
and  after  inheriting  sufficient  income  to  make  him  independent, 
settled  dowTi  in  London  and  gave  his  time  to  pioneering  experi- 
ments in  many  branches  of  science.  He  contributed  largely  to 
founding  the  science  of  meteorology,  opened  new  paths  in  experi- 
mental psychology,  introduced  the  system  of  finger  prints  to 
anthropology,  and  took  up  the  study  of  heredity,  publishing  in 
1865  a  series  of  articles  under  the  title  of  "Hereditary  Talent 
and  Genius,"  which  contained  his  first  utterances  on  eugenics. 

The  present  generation  can  hardly  understand  what  a  new 
field  Galton  broke.  Even  Darwin  had  supposed  that  men  do  not 
differ  very  much  in  intellectual  endowment,  and  that  their 
differences  in  achievement  are  principally  the  result  of  differences 
in  zeal  and  industry.  Galton's  articles,  whose  thesis  was  that 
better  men  could  be  bred  by  conscious  selection,  attracted  much 
attention  from  the  scientific  world  and  were  expanded  in  1869  in 
his  book  Hereditary  Genius. 

This  was  an  elaborate  and  painstaking  study  of  the  biog- 
raphies of  977  men  who  would  rank,  according  to  Galton's 
estimate,  as  about  i  to  4,000  of  the  general  population,  in  respect 
to  achievement.  The  number  of  families  found  to  contain  more 
than  one  eminent  man  was  300,  divided  as  follows:  Judges,  85; 


152  APPLIED  EUGEXICS 

Stateanen,  39;  Commanders,  27;  Literary,  ^;i;  Scientific,  43; 
Poets,  20;  Artists,  28;  Divines,  25.  The  close  groupings  of  the 
interrelated  eminence  led  to  the  conclusion  that  heredity  plays  a 
very  important  part  in  achievement.  The  greater  success  of 
real  sons  of  great  men  as  compared  ynth  adopted  sons  of  great 
men  likewise  indicated,  he  thought,  that  success  is  due  to  actual 
biological  heredity  rather  than  to  the  good  opportunities  af- 
forded the  scion  of  the  illustrious  family.  Galton's  conclusion 
was  that  by  selecting  from  strains  that  produced  eminence,  a 
superior  human  stock  could  be  bred. 

In  1874  he  published  a  similar  study  of  the  heredity  of  180 
eminent  English  scientists,  reemphasizing  the  claims  of  nature 
over  nurture,  to  use  his  familiar  antithesis.  In  1883  he  pub- 
lished "Inquiries  into  the  Himian  Faculty  and  Its  Develop- 
ment," a  collection  of  evolutionary  and  anthropometric  essays 
where  the  word  Eugenics  was  first  used  in  a  new  exposition  of 
the  author's  \'iews.  "Natural  Inheritance"  appeared  in  1889, 
being  the  essence  of  various  memoirs  published  since  "Hered- 
itary Genius,"  dealing  with  the  general  biological  principles 
underlying  the  study  of  heredity  and  continuing  the  study  of 
resemblances  between  individuals  in  respect  to  stature,  eye 
color,  artistic  faculty  and  morbid  conditions. 

Galton's  interest  in  eugenics  was  not  lessened  by  the  abundant 
critidan  he  received,  and  in  1901  he  defended  "The  Possible 
Improvement  of  the  Human  Breed  under  Existing  Conditions  of 
^jfJ"        Law  and  Sentiment "  before  the  Anthropological  Society.   Three 
^■*  years  later  he  read  a  paper  entitled  "Eugenics;  Its  Definition, 

Sa^  and  Aims,"  to  the  Sociological  Society.  His  program,  in 
brief,  was  as  follows: 

1.  Disseminate  knowledge  of  hereditary  laws  as  far  as  surely 
known  and  promote  their  further  study. 

2.  Inquire  into  birth  rates  of  various  strata  of  society  (clas- 
sified according  to  civic  usefulness)  in  ancient  and  modem  na- 
tions. 

3.  Collect  reliable  data  showing  how  lai;ge  and  thriving 
^miiies  have  most  frequently  originated. 

4.  Study  the  influences  affecting  marriage. 


/ 


ORIGIX  AXD  GB0IITII  QF  MOVEMEXT 

5>  IVitiiinBlily  act  iorth  tig  Biilif  JJMportiaccgff  ] 
The  iolowig  7^^^^  GoitaB  ai0BB  md  a. 
Society;  saggptmg  i4b  aHoni  oi  ntiS6iMitt%  of 
HeilwiiiiiiMiUfcHi 

bBgothei 
LoDdoD  to  idetQsiBc^  9 1 
isv  and  ia  1905  a 

16sE.  IL  OtotoaUUtkaeposIsi 
Kad  Pcajgotti  tooi:  dbane  «f  tfe 


tocrk  -wQsdk;  Cf)  Ettics,  ia  an  far  as  it] 
ladlD  tlK  a^nvc^al:  of  9DcU  q^ity;  (Sl 

In  Amerka.  dbc  aawcaKait  got  an  orif : 
dowijr.   Ike£n^d€£-'  11   Ih  fawili—  rf 

of  Unqltf  in  Bo?i: :  v  after  iSflo^  Igp- 

-Kito  uras  assisted  by  tiie  poet  Ijai^iflBV,  SbhibI  EL 
Mrs.  TTiri  n  1  Iffiiiai^ 
to  wa^  Ti'ssy  aaKli  aln^g  tike  Sacs  tikHt  tihc 

ajMperoatfaeili^i  oflfaBiawiliiwqf  a( 
■  tiis  cmiiy,  ia  «iidk  kr  gnc 


154  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

searches  he  had  made  at  Martha's  Vineyard  and  other  localities 
during  preceding  years,  on  the  pedigrees  of  congenitally  deaf 
persons — deaf  mutes,  as  they  were  then  called.  He  showed 
clearly  that  congenital  deafness  is  largely  due  to  heredity,  that 
it  is  much  increased  by  consanguineous  marriages,  and  that  it  is 
of  great  importance  to  prevent  the  marriage  of  persons,  in  both 
of  whose  families  congenital  deafness  is  present.  About  five 
years  later  he  founded  the  Volta  Bureau  in  Washington,  D.  C, 
for  the  study  of  deafness,  and  this  has  fostered  a  great  deal  of 
research  work  on  this  particular  phase  of  heredity. 

In  1903  the  American  Breeders'  Association  was  founded  at 
/^  St.  Louis  by  plant  and  animals  breeders  who  desired  to  keep  in 
touch  with  the  new  subject  of  genetics,  the  science  of  breeding, 
which  was  rapidly  coming  to  have  great  practical  importance. 
From  the  outset,  the  members  realized  that  the  changes  which 
they  could  produce  in  races  of  animals  and  plants  might  also 
be  produced  in  man,  and  the  science  of  eugenics  was  thus  recog- 
nized on  a  sound  biological  basis.  Soon  a  definite  eugenics 
section  was  formed,  and  as  the  importance  of  this  section  in- 
creased, and  it  was  realized  that  the  name  of  Breeders'  Associa- 
tion was  too  narrowly  construed  by  the  public,  the  association 
changed  its  name  (1913)  to  the  American  Genetic  Association, 
and  the  name  of  its  organ  from  the  American  Breeders'  Maga- 
zine to  the  Journal  of  Heredity. 

Under  the  auspices  of  this  association,  the  Eugenics  Record 

>  Office  was  established  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long  Island,  by 
Dr.  C.  B.  Davenport.  It  has  been  mainly  supported  by  Mrs.  E. 
H.  Harriman,  but  has  since  been  taken  over  by  the  Carnegie 
Institution  of  Washington.  It  is  gathering  pedigrees  in  many 
parts  of  the  United  States,  analyzing  them  and  publishing  the 
results  in  a  series  of  bulletins. 

In  the  last  few  years,  the  public  has  come  to  take  a  keen  in- 
terest in  the  possibilities  of  eugenics.  This  has  led  some  sex 
hygienists,  child  welfare  workers,  and  persons  similarly  engaged, 
to  attempt  to  capitalize  the  interest  in  eugenics  by  appropriating 
the  name  for  their  own  use.  We  strongly  object  to  any  such 
misuse  of  the  word,  which  should  designate  the  application  of 


ORIGIN  AND  GROWTH  OF  MOVEMENT        155 

genetics  to  the  human  race.  Sex  hygiene,  child  welfare,  and 
other  sanitary  and  sociological  movements  should  stand  on  their 
own  feet  and  leave  to  eugenics  the  scope  which  its  Greek  deriva- 
tion indicates  for  it, — the  science  of  good  breeding.^ 

In  all  parts  of  Europe,  the  ideas  of  eugenics  have  gradually 
spread.  In  19 12  the  first  International  Eugenics  Congress  was 
held  at  London,  under  auspices  of  the  Eugenics  Education  So- 
ciety; more  than  700  delegates  were  in  attendance. 

Germany,  Sweden,  Switzerland  and  Austria  are  united  in  an 
International  Eugenics  Society  and  the  war  led  to  the  formation 
of  a  number  of  separate  societies  in  Germany.  Hungary  has 
formed  an  organization  of  its  own,  France  has  its  society  in 
Paris,  and  the  Italian  Anthropological  Society  has  given  much 
attention  to  the  subject.  The  Anthropological  Society  of  Den- 
mark has  similarly  recognized  eugenics  by  the  formation  of  a 
separate  section.  The  Institut  Solvay  of  Belgium,  a  foundation 
with  sociological  aims,  created  a  eugenics  section  several  years 
ago;  and  in  Holland  a  strong  committee  has  been  formed.  Last 
of  all,  Sweden  has  put  a  large  separate  organization  in  the  field. 

In  the  United  States  the  subject  has  interested  many  women's 
clubs,  college  organizations  and  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tions, while  the  periodical  press  has  given  it  a  large  amount  of 
attention.  Public  enthusiasm,  often  ill-guided,  has  in  a  few  cases 
outrun  the  facts,  and  has  secured  legislation  in  some  states, 
which  by  no  means  meets  the  approval  of  most  scientific  eu- 
genists. 

When  we  speak  of  scientific  eugenists,  it  may  appear  that  we 

» The  entire  field  of  race  betterment  and  social  improvement  is  divided  between 
eugenics,  which  considers  only  germinal  or  heritable  changes  in  the  race;  and  eutken- 
ics,  which  deals  with  improvement  in  the  individual,  and  in  his  environment.  Of 
course,  no  sharp  line  can  be  drawn  between  the  two  spheres,  each  one  having  many 
indirect  effects  on  the  other.  It  is  important  to  note,  however,  that  any  change  in 
the  individual  during  his  pre-natal  life  is  euthenic,  not  eugenic.  Therefore,  con- 
trary to  the  popular  idea  of  the  case,  the  "Better  Babies"  movement,  the  agitation 
for  proper  care  of  expectant  mothers,  and  the  like,  are  not  directly  a  part  of  eugenics. 
The  moment  of  conception  is  the  point  at  which  eugenics  gives  place  to  euthenics. 
Eugenics  is  therefore  the  fundamental  method  of  human  progress,  euthenics  the 
secondary  one;  their  relations  will  be  further  considered  in  the  last  chapter  of  this 
book. 


+ 


iS6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

use  the  word  in  an  invidious  way.  We  use  it  deliberately,  and 
by  using  it  we  mean  to  intimate  that  we  do  not  think  enthusiasm 
is  an  adequate  substitute  for  knowledge,  in  anyone  who  assumes 
to  pass  judgment  upon  a  measure  as  being  eugenic  or  dysgenic — 
as  likely  to  improve  the  race  or  cause  its  deterioration.  Eugenics 
is  a  biological  science  which,  in  its  application,  must  be  inter- 
preted with  the  help  of  the  best  scientific  method.  Very  few 
social  workers,  whose  field  eugenics  touches,  are  competent  to 
understand  its  bearings  without  some  study,  and  an  apprecia- 
tion of  eugenics  is  the  more  difficult  for  them,  because  an  under- 
standing of  it  will  show  them  that  some  of  their  work  is  based  on 
false  premises.  The  average  legislator  is  equally  unlikely  to 
understand  the  full  import  of  eugenics,  unless  he  has  made  a 
definite  effort  to  do  so.  All  the  more  honor,  then,  to  the  rapidly 
increasing  number  of  social  workers  and  legislators  who  have 
grasped  the  full  meaning  of  eugenics  and  are  now  striving  to  put 
it  in  effect.  The  agriculturist,  through  his  experience  with 
plants  and  animals,  is  probably  better  qualified  than  anyone 
else  to  realize  the  practicability  of  eugenics,  and  it  is  accordingly 
not  a  matter  of  mere  chance  that  the  science  of  eugenics  in 
America  was  built  up  by  a  breeders'  association,  and  has  found 
and  still  finds  hundreds  of  effective  advocates  in  the  graduates 
of  the  agricultural  colleges. 

/  The  program  of  eugenics  naturally  divides  itself  in  two  parts: 
'    (i)  Reducing  the  racial  contribution  of  the  least  desirable  part 
of  the  population. 

(2)  Increasing  the  racial  contribution  of  the  superior  part  of 
ihe  population. 

\  The  first  part  of  this  program  is  the  most  pressing  and  the  most 
easily  dealt  with;  it  is  no  cause  for  surprise,  then,  that  to  many 
people  it  has  seemed  to  be  the  predominant  aim  of  eugenics. 
Certainly  the  problem  is  great  enough  to  stagger  anyone  who 
looks  it  full  in  the  face;  although  for  a  variety  of  reasons,  satis- 
factory statistical  evidence  of  racial  degeneracy  is  hard  to  get. 

Considering  only  the  "institutional  population"  of  the  United 
States,  one  gets  the  following  figures: 

Blind:  total,  64,763  according  to  census  of  1900.     Of  these, 


ORIGIN  AND  GROWTH  OF  MOVEMENT        157 

35,645  were  totally  blind  and  29,1 18  partly  blind.  The  affection 
is  stated  to  have  been  congenital  in  4,730  cases.  Nineteen 
,per  cent  of  the  blind  were  found  to  have  blind  relatives;  4.5%  of 
them  were  returned  as  the  offspring  of  cousin  marriages. 

Deaf:  total,  86,515,  according  to  the  census  of  1900.  More 
than  50,000  of  them  were  deaf  from  childhood  (under  20), 
12,609  being  deaf  from  birth.  At  least  4.5%  of  the  deaf  were 
stated  to  be  offspring  of  cousin  marriages,  and  32.1%  to  have 
deaf  relatives.  The  significance  of  this  can  not  be  determined 
unless  it  is  known  how  many  normal  persons  have  deaf  relatives 
(or  blind  relatives,  in  considering  the  preceding  paragraph), 
but  it  points  to  the  existence  of  families  that  are  characterized 
by  deafness  (or  blindness). 

Insane:  the  census  of  1910  enumerated  only  the  insane  who 
were  in  institutions;  they  numbered  187,791.  The  number  out- 
side of  institutions  is  doubtless  considerable  but  can  not  be  com- 
puted! The  institutional  population  is  not  a  permanent,  but 
mainly  a  transient  one,  the  number  of  persons  discharged  from 
institutions  in  1910  being  29,304.  •  As  the  number  and  size  of 
institutions  does  not  increase  very  rapidly,  it  would  appear 
probable  that  25,000  insane  persons  pass  through  and  out  of  in- 
stitutions, and  back  into  the  general  population,  each  year. 
From  this  one  can  get  some  idea  of  the  amount  of  neurotic  weak- 
ness in  the  population  of  the  United  States, — much  of  it  congeni- 
tal and  heritable  in  character. 

Feeble-minded:  the  census  (1910)  lists  only  those  in 
institutions,  who  totaled  about  40,000.  The  census  experts  be- 
lieve that  200,000  would  be  a  conservative  estimate  of  the  total 
number  of  feeble-minded  in  the  country,  and  many  psychologists 
think  that  300,000  would  be  more  nearly  accurate.  The  number 
of  feeble-minded  who  are  receiving  institutional  care  is  almost 
certainly  not  more  than  10%  or  15%  of  the  total,  and  many  of 
these  (about  15,000)  are  in  almshouses,  not  special  institutions. 

Paupers:  There  were  84,198  paupers  enumerated  in  alms- 
houses on  January  i,  1910,  and  88,313  admitted  during  the  year, 
which  indicates  that  the  almshouse  paupers  are  a  rapidly  shift- 
ing group.     This  population,  probably  of  several  hundred  thou- 


158  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

sand  persons,  who  drift  into  and  out  of  almshouses,  can  hardly 
be  characterized  accurately,  but  in  large  part  it  must  be  con- 
sidered at  least  inefficient  and  probably  of  mentally  low  grade. 

Criminals:  The  inmates  of  prisons,  penitentiaries,  refor- 
matories, and  similar  places  of  detention  numbered  111,609 
in  1910;  this  docs  not  include  25,000  juvenile  delinquents.  The 
jail  population  is  nearly  all  transient;  one  must  be  very  cautious 
in  inferring  that  conviction  for  an  offense  against  the  law  indi- 
cates lack  of  eugenic  value;  but  it  is  worth  noting  that  the 
number  of  offenders  who  are  feeble-minded  is  probably  not  less 
than  one-fourth  or  one-third.  If  the  number  of  inebriates  could 
be  added,  it  would  greatly  increase  the  total;  and  inebriacy  or 
chronic  alcoholism  is  generally  recognized  now  as  indicating  in 
a  majority  of  cases  either  feeble-mindedness  or  some  other  defect 
of  the  nervous  system.  The  number  of  criminals  who  are  in  some 
way  neurotically  tainted  is  placed  by  some  psychologists  at 
50%  or  more  of  the  total  prison  population. 

Add  to  these  a  number  of  epileptics,  tramps,  prostitutes,  beg- 
gars, and  others  whom  the  census  enumerator  finds  it  difficult 
to  catch,  and  the  total  number  of  possible  undesirable  parents 
becomes  very  large.  It  is  in  fact  much  larger  than  appears  in 
these  figures,  because  of  the  fact  that  many  people  carry  de- 
fects that  are  latent  and  only  appear  in  the  offspring  of  a  mar- 
riage representing  two  tainted  strains.  Thus  the  feeble-minded 
child  usually  if  not  always  has  feeble-mindedness  in  both  his 
father's  and  mother's  ancestry,  and  for  every  one  of  the  patent 
feeble-minded  above  enumerated,  there  may  be  several  dozen 
latent  ones,  who  are  themselves  probably  normal  in  every  way 
and  yet  carry  the  dangerously  tainted  germ-plasm. 

The  estimate  has  frequently  been  made  that  the  United 
States  would  be  much  better  off  eugenically  if  it  were  deprived 
of  the  future  racial  contributions  of  at  least  10%  of  its  citizens. 
While  literally  true  this  estimate  is  too  high  for  the  group  which 
could  be  considered  for  attempts  to  directly  control  in  a  practi- 
cal eugenics  program. 

Natural  selection,  in  the  early  days  of  man's  history,  would 
have  killed  off  many  of  these  people  early  in  life.    They  would 


ORIGIN  AND  GROWTH  OF  MOVEMENT        159 

have  been  unable  to  compete  with  their  physically  and  mentally 
more  vigorous  fellows  and  would  have  died  miserably  by  starva- 
tion or  violence.  Natural  selection's  use  of  the  death-rate  was  a 
brutal  one,  but  at  least  it  prevented  such  traits  as  these  people 
show  from  increasing  in  each  generation.  Eugenists  hope  to 
arrive  at  the  same  result,  not  by  the  death-rate  but  by  the  birth- 
rate. If  germinally  anti-social  persons  are  kept  humanely 
segregated  during  their  lifetime,  instead  of  being  turned  out 
after  a  few  years  of  institutional  life  and  allowed  to  marry,  they 
will  leave  no  descendants,  and  the  number  of  congenital  defec- 
tives in  the  conmiunity  will  be  notably  diminished.  If  the  same 
policy  is  followed  through  succeeding  generations,  the  number 
of  defectives,  of  those  incapable  of  taking  a  useful  part  in  society, 
will  become  smaller  and  smaller.  One  who  does  not  believe  that 
these  people  hand  on  their  traits  to  their  descendants  may  prof- 
itably consider  the  famous  history  of  the  so-called  Juke  family, 
a  strain  originating  among  the  "finger  lakes"  of  New  York, 
whose  history  was  published  by  R.  L.  Dugdale  as  far  back  as 
1877  and  lately  restudied  by  A.  H.  Estabrook. 

"From  one  lazy  vagabond  nicknamed  'Juke,'  born  in  1720, 
whose  two  sons  married  five  degenerate  sisters,  six  generations 
numbering  about  1,200  persons  of  every  grade  of  idleness,  vicious- 
ness,  lewdness,  pauperism,  disease,  idiocy,  insanity  and  crim- 
inality were  traced.  Of  the  total  seven  generations,  300  died  in 
infancy;  310  were  professional  paupers,  kept  in  almshouses  a 
total  of  2,300  years;  440  were  physically  wrecked  by  their  own 
'diseased  wickedness';  more  than  half  the  women  fell  into 
prostitution;  130  were  convicted  criminals;  60  were  thieves; 
7  were  murderers;  only  20  learned  a  trade,  10  of  these  in  state 
prison,  and  all  at  a  state  cost  of  over  $1,250,000."  ^ 

'  The  clan  has  now  reached  its  ninth  generation  and  its  present  status  has  been 
exhaustively  studied  by  A.  H.  Estabrook  {The  Jukes  in  IQ15:  Carnegie  Institution 
of  Washington,  1916).  He  enunierates  2,820  individuals,  of  whom  half  are  still 
living.  In  the  early  8o's  they  left  their  original  home  and  are  now  scattered  all 
over  the  country.  The  change  in  environment  has  enabled  somfe  of  them  to  rise 
to  a  higher  level,  but  on  the  whole,  says  C.  B.  Davenport  in  a  preface  to  Estabrook's 
book,  they  "still  show  the  same  feeble-mindedness,  indolence,  licentiousness  and 
dishonesty,  even  when  not  handicapped  by  the  associations  of  their  bad  family 
name  and  despite  the  fact  of  being  surrounded  by  better  social  conditions."    Esta- 


i6o  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

How  heredity  works  both  ways,  is  shown  by  the  history  of  the 
Kallikak  family,  published  by  H.  H.  Goddard  a  few  years  ago. 

"At  the  beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  War  a  young  man, 
known  in  the  history  as  Martin  Kallikak,  had  a  son  by  a  name- 
less, feeble-minded  girl,  from  whom  there  have  descended  in  the 
direct  line  four  hundred  and  eighty  individuals.  One  hundred 
and  forty-three  of  these  are  known  to  have  been  feeble-minded, 
and  only  forty-six  are  known  to  have  been  normal.  The  rest 
are  unknown  or  doubtful.  Thirty-six  have  been  illegimate; 
thirty-three,  sexually  immoral,  mostly  prostitutes;  twenty-four, 
alcoholic;  three,  epileptic;  eighty-two  died  in  infancy;  three 
were  criminal,  and  eight  kept  houses  of  ill-fame.  After  the  war, 
Martin  Kallikak  married  a  woman  of  good  stock.  From  this 
union  have  come  in  direct  line  four  hundred  and  ninety-six, 
among  whom  only  two  were  alcoholic,  and  one  known  to  be 
sexually  inmioral.  The  legitimate  children  of  Martin  have  been 
doctors,  lawyers,  judges,  educators,  traders,  landholders,  in 
short,  respectable  citizens,  men  and  women  prominent  in  every 
phase  of  social  life.  These  two  families  have  lived  on  the  same 
soil,  in  the  same  atmosphere,  and  in  short,  under  the  same 
general  environment,  yet  the  bar  sinister  has  marked  every 
generation  of  one  and  has  been  unknown  in  the  other." 

If  it  were  possible  to  improve  or  eradicate  these  defective 
strains  by  giving  them  better  surroundings,  the  nation  might 
easily  get  rid  of  this  burden.  But  we  have  given  reasons  in 
Chapter  I  for  believing  that  the  problem  can  not  be  solved  in 
that  way,  and  more  evidence  to  the  same  effect  will  be  present 
in  other  chapters  of  the  book. 

An  understanding  of  the  nature  of  the  problem  will  show  that 
present  methods  of  dispensing  justice,  giving  charity,  dealing 
with  defectives  and  working  for  social  betterment  need  careful 
examination  and  numerous  modifications,  if  they  are  not  to  be 
ineffectual  or  merely  palliative,  or  worse  still,  if  they  are  not  to 

brook  says  the  clan  might  have  been  exterminated  by  preventing  the  reproduction 
of  its  members,  and  that  the  nation  would  thereby  have  saved  about  $2,500,000. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  "out  of  approximately  600  living  feeble-minded  and 
epileptic  Jukes,  there  are  only  three  now  in  custodial  care." 


C»UGm  AHD  GROWTH  OF  MOVEME!^       i6x 

give  teaq^orajy  i^^ef  ai  tike  cxBSt  vof  gireal}y  as^ 
riyapatop  im  the  end. 

Iffl  tlie  past  America  has  siivra  auid  at  pBraeni:  slt3 
tJanwif^H'  !tio  the  m^m&sal  and  Ittllie,  W  aisn^,  to  pasterilty.  Eo- 
gemcs  does  n&L  waxit  to  drmiTiisih  tfe  R|^id  for  tlae  imMiiikhnlj, 
but  it  does  insislesitfy  declare  thai  tiacifltterasls  off  IfeaaiBfaic 
greater  than  thast  of  the  iew,  axtd  it  ikoMs  itiuit  a  sttatesannBbe 
poitky  reqmBes  tIttoiQgbt  fixr  lite  fatamc  as  iidl  as  Ae  pRSotf- 
It  vvmk!  be  luurd  to  imd  a  ec^jemst  to-dafwhowooU  pnpatae^ 
'with  Flato,  idsat  ibe  xmiMits  vutln  bad  heieJily  sSmmU  be  parit  to 
death,  bat  daear  rig^t  togpowr  ly  totJheftJrstc^iiyKMtof  He 
does  litot  xiecessaiily  inciade  Ae  li^hft  to  pass  OB  dHV  deiccli^ 
beredlQr  to  a  Icmg  Imte  of  desoeiodaxits,  inalwiaBy  iMCRasvg  ia 
nuinbeT  in  each  generatkun.  Indeed  a  ne^aad  for  the  toltaEl^  of 
human  happoBess  makes  it  itecessaiy  thai  tih^  ^hoaU  mlt  so 
continiae- 

Whikit  is  thehc^of  eii^aucstiadtfeiPcrdefojdveaiBdafl^ 
sodal  individoals  shall  be  bona  m  ttlae  fatxune,  ilk  las  been  em- 
phasized so  mij>ch  that  the  program  <of  cageaMcs  fe  Bkcfy  to  be 
seeiQ  ixi  lalse  perspective.  Iq  irealityitstbekssoBopariaiirtsalde 
of  the  pictui^.  More  good  dtiaeiB  axe  aamtBd,  as  wA  as 
fewer  bad  oioes.  Eveiy  nee  leqpiiies  kadeis.  Hiese  kade» 
appear  firosii  txoie  to  tscDe,  and  emmq^h  k  Isoovia  abomt 
epgeoics  wtam  to  shci>nr  tjxat  their  appcaunanoe  is  IkcqfuienltHy 
pr«dictal^  Bot  a>cddentaL  It  is  possabDe  to  lorae  tdbena  appeur 
moie  irecpently;  axtd  m  adc^tiaaii,  to  nuse  tdhe  level  of  tbe 
-vrfaole  race,  TnaikiTtg  the  entire  natioa  haqppier  and  more 
lasefiaL  Tltese  aie  the  gieadt  tasks  off  eqgenacs.  Amieiraca  xteei^ 
XDoie  faixiilies  £ke  that  old  Pioritaa  stxain  idnidii  k  oose  of  tSae 
faxni&ar  exampks  of  eqgenks: 

^\\t  tbdr  head  stands  Jcwiathan  Edwavd^  ax»d  beMiad  bioa  an 
anay  of  Ms  descenduts  moimlbeinng  in  igoo^  I93949  <Qf  ^vbom  395 
were  coUr^ge  g^adoaibK;  13  preadeots  of  onrgnKtcsl:  oolkges; 
65  pndessors  in  codle^ies,  be^des  nanj'  principals  off  otdher  im- 
poitant  ediacatknxal  ixtstitatioaits;  60  phjadaiK,  mai^  off  mtem 
were  eminemt;  100  axtd  more  cletgymen^  xcussooinaoes,  or  tbeo- 
logicai  prafesaors;  75  wen  officers  in  idK  aumiy  and  navy;  (bo 


i62  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

prominent  authors  and  writers,  by  whom  135  books  of  merit 
were  written  and  published  and  18  important  periodicals  edited; 
33  American  states  and  several  foreign  countries,  and  92  Amer- 
ican cities  and  many  foreign  cities  have  profited  by  the  beneficent 
influences  of  their  eminent  activity;  100  and  more  were  lawyers, 
of  whom  one  was  our  most  eminent  professor  of  law;  30  were 
judges;  80  held  public  office,  of  whom  one  was  vice  president  of 
the  United  States;  three  were  United  States  senators;  several 
were  governors,  members  of  Congress,  framers  of  state  consti- 
tutions, mayors  of  cities  and  ministers  of  foreign  courts;  one  was 
president  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company;  15  railroads, 
many  banks,  insurance  companies,  and  large  industrial  enter- 
prises have  been  indebted  to  their  management.  Almost  if  not 
every  department  of  social  progress  and  of  the  public  weal  has 
felt  the  impulse  of  this  healthy  and  long-lived  family.  It  is  not 
known  that  any  one  of  them  was  ever  convicted  of  crime." 

Every  one  will  agree  that  the  nation  needs  more  families  like 
that.  How  can  it  get  them?  Galton  blazed  the  way  in  1865, 
when  he  pointed  to  selective  breeding  as  the  effective  means. 
The  animal  breeder  knows  what  marvels  he  can  accomplish  by 
this  means;  but  it  is  not  practicable  to  breed  human  beings  in 
that  direct  way.  Is  there  any  indirect  method  of  reaching  the 
same  ends? 

There  are,  in  our  opinion,  a  good  many  such  means,  and  it  is 
the  principal  purpose  of  this  book  to  point  them  out.  The 
problem  of  constructive  or  positive  eugenics,  naturally  divides 
itself  into  two  parts: 

1.  To  secure  a  sufficient  number  of  marriages  of  the  superior. 

2.  To  secure  an  adequate  birth-rate  from  these  marriages. 
The  problem  of  securing  these  two  results  is  a  complex  one, 

which  must  be  attacked  by  a  variety  of  methods.  It  is  necessary 
that  superior  people  first  be  made  to  desire  marriage  and  chil- 
dren; and  secondly,  that  it  be  economically  and  otherwise 
possible  for  them  to  carry  out  this  desire. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  know  how  the  Germans  are  attacking 
the  problem,  even  though  some  of  their  measures  may  be  con- 
sidered ineffective  or  inadvisable. 


ORIGIN  AND  GROWTH  OF  MOVEMENT        i<»j 

At  its  annual  meeting  in  1914  the  Gctmaa  Society  for  Race 
Hygiene  axk^ted  a  vescAutkm  on  the  subject  off  ^ipGed  tfgeniUv. 

"The  future  of  the  Germa.n  people  is  at  state,"  It  dedurs. 
'■'The  Gennan  empire  can  not  in  the  ksng  run  Traint^m  its  tme 
nadcmality  and  the  independence  of  its  devdopoiait,  U  it  does 

not  begin  without  delay  and  with  the  greatKt  eaa^  to  mold 
its  internal  and  external  politics  as  well  as  the  '■^loie  Bfe  off  tbe 

people  in  accordance  with  eugenic  principles.  Most  important 
oS  all  are  measures  for  a  hi^io-  reproduction  of  bealth}-  and  aiiJe 
families.  The  rapidly  declining  birth-rate  of  the  healthy  and 
able  families  necessarily  leads  to  the  social,  economical  and  po- 
litical retrogression  of  the  German  people,"  it  points  out,  and  then 
goes  on  to  enumerate  the  causes  oi  this  decline,  which  it  t"hiTit< 
is  partly  due  to  the  action  of  racial  poisons  but  principally 
to  the  increasing  willful  restriction  of  tbe  number  of  ddldren. 

The  society  recc^nizes  tiiat  the  reasons  for  this  limitation  of 
the  aze  of  families  are  largely  economic  It  enmnaatcs  the 
question  of  expense,  consid^ations  of  eoonomic  inheritance — 
that  is,  a  father  does  not  like  to  di\"Tde  up  his  estate  too  much; 
the  labor  of  women,  which  is  incompatible  with  the  laiaqg  of  a 
large  family;  and  the  difficulties  caused  bj-  the  crowded  boa^^ 
in  the  large  cities. 

In  order  to  secure  a  posterity  sufficient  in  numba-  and  aMlitj-, 
the  resolution  continues,  The  German  Society'  for  Race  Hygiene 
demands: 

1.  A  back-to- the  farm  movement. 

2.  Better  housing  facilities  in  the  cities. 

3.  Eoonomic  assistance  of  large  families  throng  payment  of  a 
substantial  relief  to  married  mothers  who  survive  their  husbands, 
and  consideration  of  the  nimiber  of  children  in  the  payment  of 
public  and  pri\-ate  emfdoyees. 

4.  Abolition  of  certain  impediments  to  marriage,  such  as  the 
army  r^ulation  forbidding  offioCTS  to  marry  beioie  thej-  neacii 
a  certain  grade. 

5.  Increase  of  tax  on  alcohol,  tobacco  and  luxuries,  the  pro- 
ceeds to  be  used  to  subsidize  worthy  families. 

6.  Medical  regulations  <^  a  hygicanc  nature. 


i64  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

7.  Setting  out  large  prizes  for  excellent  works  of  art  (novels, 
dramas,  plastic  arts)  which  glorify  the  ideal  of  motherhood, 
the  family  and  simple  life. 

8.  Awakening  a  national  mind  ready  to  undergo  sacrifices 
on  behalf  of  future  generations. 

In  spite  of  some  defects  such  a  program  brings  out  clearly  the 
principle  of  eugenics, — the  substitution  of  a  selective  birth-rate 
for  the  selective  death-rate  by  which  natural  selection  has 
brought  the  race  to  its  present  level.  Nature  lets  a  multitude 
of  individuals  be  bom  and  kills  off  the  poorer  ones;  eugenics  pro- 
poses to  have  fewer  poor  ones  and  more  good  ones  bom  in  each 
generation. 

Any  means  which  tends  to  bring  about  one  of  those  ends,  is  a 
part  of  Applied  Eugenics. 

By  this  time  the  reader  will  have  seen  that  eugenics  has  some 
definite  ideals  not  only  as  to  how  the  race  can  be  kept  from  de- 
teriorating further,  under  the  interference  with  natural  selection 
which  civilization  entails,  but  as  to  how  its  physical,  mental  and 
moral  level  can  actually  be  raised.    He  can  easily  draw  his  own 
conclusions  as  to  what  eugenics  does  noi  propose.    No  eugenist 
worthy  of  the  name  has  ever  proposed  to  breed  genius  as  the 
stockman  breeds  trotting  horses,  despite  jibes  of  the  comic  press 
to  the  contrary.    But  if  young  people,  before  picking  out  their 
life  partners,  are  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  idea  that  such 
f  qualities  as  energy,   longevity,  a  sound  constitution,   public 
I  -and  private  w^orth,  are  primarily  due  to  heredity,  and  if  they  are 
I  taught  to  realize  tLe  fact  that  one  marries  not  an  individual  but 
\  a  family,  the  eugenist  beUeves  that  better  matingsjw'ill-be  made, 
W)metimes  realized,  sometimesTfisensibry. 
^Furthermore,  if  children  from  such  ma  tings  are  made  an  asset 
rather  than  a  liability;  if  society  ceases  to  penalize,  in  a  hundred 
insidious  ways,  the  parents  of  large  and  superior  families,  but  ' 
honors  and  aids  them  instead,  one  may  justifiably  hope  that 
the  birth-rate  in  the  most  useful  and  happy  part  of  the  popula- 
tion will  steadily  increase. 

Perhaps  that  is  as  far  as  it  is  necessary  that  the  aim  of 
eugenics  should  be  defined;  yet  one  can  hardly  ignore  the  phil- 


ORIGIN  AND  GROWTH  OF  MOVEMENT        165 

osophical  aspect  of  the  problem,  Galton's  suggestion  that  man 
should  assist  the  course  of  his  own  evolution  meets  with  the  gen- 
eral approval  of  biologists;  but  when  one  asks  what  the  ultimate 
goal  of  human  evolution  should  be,  one  faces  a  difiicult  ques- 
tion. Under  these  circumstances,  can  it  be  said  that  eugenics 
really  has  a  goal,  or  is  it  merely  stumbling  along  in  the  dark, 
possibly  far  from  the  real  road,  of  whose  existence  it  is  aware 
but  of  whose  location  it  has  no  knowledge? 

There  are  several  routes  on  which  one  can  proceed  with  the 
confidence  that,  if  no  one  of  them  is  the  main  road,  at  least  it  is 
likely  to  lead  into  the  latter  at  some  time.  Fortunately,  eugen- 
ics is,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  able  to  advance  on  all  these 
paths  at  once;  for  it  proposes  no  definite  goal,  it  sets  up  no  one 
standard  to  which  it  would  make  the  human  race  conform. 
Taking  man  as  it  finds  him,  it  proposes  to  multiply  all  the  types 
that  have  been  found  by  past  experience  or  present  reason  to  be 
of  most  value  to  society.  Not  only  would  it  multiply  them  in 
numbers,  but  also  in  efficiency,  in  capacity  to  serve  the  race. 

By  so  doing,  it  undoubtedly  fulfills  the  requirements  of  that 
popular  philosophy  which  holds  the  aim  of  society  to  be  the 
greatest  happiness  for  the  greatest  number,  or  more  definitely 
the  increase  of  the  totality  of  human  happiness.  To  cause  not 
to  exist  those  who  would  be  doomed  from  birth  to  give  only 
unhappiness  to  themselves  and  those  about  them;  to  increase 
the  number  of  those  in  whom  useful  physical  and  mental  traits 
are  well  developed;  to  bring  about  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
energetic  altruists  and  a  decrease  in  the  number  of  the  anti- 
social or  defective;  surely  such  an  undertaking  will  come  nearer 
to  increasing  the  happiness  of  the  greatest  number,  than  will 
any  temporary  social  palliative,  any  ointment  for  incurable 
social  wounds.  To  those  who  accept  that  philosophy,  made 
prominent  by  Jeremy  Bentham,  John  Stuart  Mill,  Herbert 
Spencer,  and  a  host  of  other  great  thinkers,  eugenics  rightly 
understood  must  seem  a  prime  necessity  of  society. 

But  can  any  philosophy  dispense  with  eugenics?  Take  those 
to  whom  the  popular  philosophy  of  happiness  seems  a  danger- 
ous goal  and  to  whom  the  only  object  of  evolution  that  one  is 


i66  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

at  present  justified  in  recognizing  is  that  of  the  perpetuation 
of  the  species  and  of  the  progressive  conquest  of  nature,  the 
acquiring  of  an  ascendancy  over  all  the  earth.  This  is  now  as 
much  a  matter  of  self-preservation  as  it  is  of  progress:  al- 
though man  no  longer  fights  for  life  with  the  cave  bear  and 
saber-toothed  tiger,  the  microbes  which  war  with  him  are  far 
more  dangerous  enemies  than  the  big  mammals  of  the  past. 
The  continuation  of  evolution,  if  it  means  conquest,  is  not  a 
work  for  dilettantes  and  Lotos  Eaters;  it  is  a  task  that  demands 
unremitting  hard  work. 

To  this  newer  philosophy  of  creative  work  eugenics  is  none 
the  less  essential.  For  eugenics  wants  in  the  world  more  phys- 
ically sound  men  and  women  with  greater  ability  in  any  valuable 
way.  Whatever  the  actual  goal  of  evolution  may  be,  it  can 
hardly  be  assumed  by  any  except  the  professional  pessimist, 
that  a  race  made  up  of  such  men  and  women  is  going  to  be  handi- 
capped by  their  presence. 

The  correlation  of  abilities  is  as  well  attested  as  any  fact  in 
psychology.  Those  who  decry  eugenics  on  the  ground  that  it  is 
impossible  to  establish  any  "standard  of  perfection,"  since 
society  needs  many  diverse  kinds  of  people,  are  overlooking  this 
fact.  Any  plan  which  increases  the  production  of  children  in 
able  families  of  various  types  will  thereby  produce  more  ability 
of  all  kinds,  since  if  a  family  is  particularly  gifted  in  one  way, 
it  is  likely  to  be  gifted  above  the  average  in  several  other  desir- 
able ways. 

Eugenics  sets  up  no  specific  superman,  as  a  type  to  which  the 
rest  of  the  race  must  be  made  to  conform.  It  is  not  looking  for- 
ward to  the  cessation  of  its  work  in  a  eugenic  millenium.  It  is  a 
perpetual  process,  which  seeks  only  to  raise  the  level  of  the  race 
by  the  production  of  fewer  people  with  physical  and  mental 
defects,  and  more  people  with  physical  and  mental  excellencies. 
Such  a  race  should  be  able  to  perpetuate  itself,  to  subdue  nature, 
to  improve  its  environment  progressively;  its  members  should 
be  happy  and  productive.  To  establish  such  a  goal  seems  justi- 
fied by  the  knowledge  of  evolution  which  is  now  available;  and 
to  make  progress  toward  it  is  possible. 


CHAPTER   VIII 
DESIRABILITY  OF  RESTRICTIVE  EUGENICS 

In  a  rural  part  of  Pennsylvania  lives  the  L.  family.  Three 
generations  studied  "all  show  the  same  drifting,  irresponsible 
tendency.  No  one  can  say  they  are  positively  bad  or  serious 
disturbers  of  the  communities  where  they  may  have  a  temporary 
home.  Certain  members  are  epileptic  and  defective  to  the  point 
of  imbecility.  The  father  of  this  family  drank  and  provided 
little  for  their  support.  The  mother,  though  hard  working,  was 
never  able  to  care  for  them  properly.  So  they  and  their  12 
children  were  frequent  recipients  of  public  relief,  a  habit  which 
they  have  consistently  kept  up.  Ten  of  the  children  grew  to 
maturity,  and  all  but  one  married  and  had  in  their  turn  large 
families.  With  two  exceptions  these  have  lived  in  the  territory 
studied.  Nobody  knows  how  they  have  subsisted,  even  with 
the  generous  help  they  have  received.  They  drift  in  and  out  of 
the  various  settlements,  taking  care  to  keep  their  residence  in 
the  county  which  has  provided  most  liberally  for  their  support. 
In  some  villages  it  is  said  that  they  have  been  in  and  out  half 
a  dozen  times  in  the  last  few  years.  First  one  family  comes  slip- 
ping back,  then  one  by  one  the  others  trail  in  as  long  as  there 
are  cheap  shelters  to  be  had.  Then  rents  fall  due,  neighbors 
become  suspicious  of  invaded  henroosts  and  potato  patches, 
and  one  after  another  the  families  take  their  departure,  only  to 
reappear  after  a  year  or  two. 

"The  seven  children  of  the  eldest  son  were  scattered  years 
ago  through  the  death  of  their  father.  They  were  taken  by 
strangers,  and  though  kept  in  school,  none  of  them  proved  cap- 
able of  advancement.  Three  at  least  could  not  learn  to  read  or 
handle  the  smallest  quantities.  The  rest  do  this  with  diflSculty. 
All  but  two  are  now  married  and  founding  the  fourth  generation 
of  this  line.   The  family  of  the  fourth  son  are  now  county  charges. 

167 


i68  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Of  the  14  children  of  school  age  in  this  and  the  remaining  families, 
all  are  greatly  retarded.  One  is  an  epileptic  and  at  16  can  not 
read  or  write.  One  at  15  is  in  the  third  reader  and  should  be  set 
down  as  defective.  The  remainder  are  from  one  to  four  years 
retarded. 

"There  is  nothing  striking  in  the  annals  of  this  family.  It 
comes  as  near  the  lowest  margin  of  human  existence  as  possible 
and  illustrates  how  marked  defect  may  sometimes  exist  without 
serious  results  in  the  infringement  of  law  and  custom.  Its  serious 
menace,  however,  lies  in  the  certain  marriage  into  stocks  which 
are  no  better,  and  the  production  of  large  families  which  con- 
tinue to  exist  on  the  same  level  of  semi-dependency.  In  place 
of  the  two  dependents  of  a  generation  ago  we  now  find  in  the 
third  generation  32  descendants  who  bid  fair  to  continue  their 
existence  on  the  same  plane — certainly  an  enormous  multipUca- 
tion  of  the  initial  burden  of  expense."  ^ 

From  cases  of  this  sort,  which  represent  the  least  striking  kind 
of  bad  breeding,  the  student  may  pass  through  many  types  up 
to  the  great  tribes  of  Jukes,  Nams,  Kallikaks,  Zeros,  Dacks, 
Ishmaels,  Sixties,  Hickories,  Hill  Folk,  Piney  Folk,  and  the  rest, 
with  which  the  readers  of  the  literature  of  restrictive  eugenics 
are  familiar.  It  is  abundantly  demonstrated  that  much,  if  not 
most,  of  their  trouble  is  the  outcome  of  bad  heredity.  Indeed, 
when  a  branch  of  one  of  these  clans  is  transported,  or  emigrates, 
to  a  wholly  new  environment,  it  soon  creates  for  itself,  in  many 
cases,  an  environment  similar  to  that  from  which  it  came. 
Whether  it  goes  to  the  city,  or  to  the  agricultural  districts  of 
the  west,  it  may  soon  manage  to  reestablish  the  debasing  at- 
mosphere to  which  it  has  always  been  accustomed.^   Those  who 

•Key,  Dr.  Wilhelmina  E.,  Feebleminded  Citizens  in  Pennsylvania,  pp.  11,  12, 
Philadelphia,  Public  Charities  Assn.,  1915. 

*  The  most  recent  extensive  study  of  this  point  is  A.  H.  Estabrook's  The  Jukes 
in  IQ15  (Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  1916).  The  Jukes  migrated  from 
their  original  home,  in  the  mountains  of  New  York,  a  generation  ago,  and  are  now 
scattered  all  over  the  country.  Estabrook  tried  to  learn,  at  first  hand,  whether 
they  had  improved  as  the  result  of  new  environments,  and  free  from  the  handicap 
of  their  name,  which  for  their  new  neighbors  had  no  bad  associations.  In  general, 
his  findings  seem  to  warrant  the  conclusion  that  a  changed  environment  in  itself 
was  of  little  benefit.    Such  improvement  as  occurred  in  the  tribe  was  rather  due 


Fig.  26. — To  this  shanty  an  elderly  man  of  the  "Hickory"  family,  a  great  dan  of 
defectives  in  rural  Ohio,  brought  his  girl-bride,  together  with  his  two  grown  sons 
by  a  former  marriage.  The  shanty  was  conveniently  located  at  a  distance  of  100  feet 
from  the  city  dump  where  the  family,  all  of  which  is  feeble-minded,  secured  its  food. 
Such  a  family  is  incapable  of  protecting  either  itself  or  its  neighbors,  and  should  be 
cared  for  by  the  state.    Photograph  from  Mina  A.  Sessions. 

A    CHIEFTAIN    OF    THE    HICKORY 
CLAN 

Fig.  27. — ^This  is  "Young  Hank,"  other- 
wise known  as  "Sore-Eyed  Hank."  He  is 
the  eldest  son  and  heir  of  that  Hank  Hick- 
ory who,  with  his  wife  and  seven  children, 
applied  for  admission  to  their  County  In- 
firmary when  it  was  first  opened.  For 
generation  after  generation,  his  family  has 
been  the  chief  patron  of  all  the  charities 
of  its  county.  "Young  Hank"  married 
his  cousin  and  duplicated  his  father's 
record  by  begetting  seven  children,  three 
of  whom  (all  feeble-minded)  are  now  living. 
The  number  of  his  grandchildren  and 
great-grandchildren  is  increasing  every 
year,  but  the  total  can  not  be  learned  from 
him,  for  he  is  mentally  incapable  of  count- 
ing even  the  number  of  his  own  children. 
He  is  about  70  years  of  age,  and  has  never 
done  any  work  except  to  make  baskets. 
He  has  lived  a  wandering  life,  largely  de- 
f)endent  on  charity.  For  the  last  25  years 
he  has  been  partly  blind,  due  to  trachoma. 
He  gets  a  blind  pension  of  $5  a  month, 
which  is  adequate  to  keep  him  supplied 
with  chewing  tobacco,  his  regular  mastica- 
tion being  10  cents  a  day.  Such  specimens 
can  be  found  in  many  rural  communities; 
if  they  were  segregated  in  youth  both  they 
and  the  community  would  be  much  better 
off.    Photograph  from  Mina  A.  Sessions. 


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DESIRABILITY  OF  RESTRICTIVE  EUGENICS     169 

see  in  improvement  of  the  environment  the  cure  for  all  such 
plague  spots  as  these  tribes  inhabit,  overlook  the  fact  that  man 
largely  creates  his  own  environment.  The  story  of  the  tene- 
ment-dwellers who  were  supplied  with  bath  tubs  but  refused  to 
use  them  for  any  other  purpose  than  to  store  coal,  exemplifies 
a  wide  range  of  facts. 

Although  conditions  may  be  worst  in  the  older  and  more 
densely  populated  states,  it  is  probable  that  there  is  no  state 
in  the  union  which  has  not  many  families,  or  group  of  families, 
of  this  dependent  type,  which  in  favorable  cases  may  attract 
little  notice,  but  therefore  do  all  the  more  harm  eugenically;  in 
other  cases  may  be  notorious  as  centers  of  criminality.  Half  a 
dozen  well-defined  areas  of  this  kind  have  been  found  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, which  is  probably  not  exceptional  in  this  respect.  "These 
differ,  of  course,  in  extent  and  character  and  the  gravity  of  the 
problems  they  present.  In  some  there  is  great  sexual  laxity, 
which  leads  to  various  forms  of  dependency  and  sometimes  to 
extreme  mental  defect.  .  In  others  alcoholism  prevails  and  the 
people  show  a  propensity  for  deeds  of  violence.  All  inform- 
ants, however,  practically  agreed  to  the  following  characteriza- 
tion: 

"i.  Because  of  the  thefts  and  depredations  and  the  fre- 
quent applications  for  charitable  relief  from  such  sections  they 
constitute  a  parasitic  growth  which  saps  the  resources  of  the 
self-respecting,  self-sustaining  contingent  of  the  population. 

"2.  They  furnish  an  undue  proportion  of  court  cases,  and 
are  thus  a  serious  expense  to  county  and  state. 

"3.  They  are  a  source  of  physical  decay  and  moral  contami- 
nation, and  thus  menace  the  integrity  of  the  entire  social  fab- 
ric." 1 

Society  has  long  since  admitted  that  it  is  desirable  to  restrict 
the  reproduction  of  certain  classes  of  gross  defectives,  and  crim- 
inals, by  the  method  of  segregation.     The  ground  for  this  is 

to  marriage  with  better  stock;  marriages  of  this  kind  were  made  more  possible  by 
the  new  environment,  but  the  tendency  to  assortative  mating  restricted  them.  It 
is  further  to  be  noted  that  while  such  marriages  may  be  good  for  the  Juke  family, 
they  are  bad  for  the  nation  as  a  whole,  because  they  tend  to  scatter  anti-social  traits. 
^  Key,  op.  cU.,  p.  7. 


I70  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

sometimes  biological,  perhaps  more  often  legal,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  insane  and  criminal,  where  it  is  held  that  the  individual 
is  legally  incapacitated  from  entering  into  a  contract,  such  as 
that  of  marriage.  It  would  be  better  to  have  the  biological 
basis  of  restriction  on  marriage  and  reproduction  recognized 
in  every  case;  but  even  with  the  present  point  of  view  the  de- 
sired end  may  be  reached. 

From  an  ethical  standpoint,  so  few  people  would  now  con- 
tend that  two  feeble-minded  or  epileptic  persons  have  any 
"right"  to  marry  and  perpetuate  their  kind,  that  it  is  hardly 
worth  while  to  argue  the  point.  We  believe  that  the  same  logic 
would  permit  two  individuals  to  marry,  but  deny  them  the 
privilege  of  having  children.  The  reasons  for  this  may  be  con- 
sidered under  three  heads. 

I.  Biological.  Are  there  cases  in  which  persons  may  properly 
marry  but  may  properly  be  prevented  by  society  from  having 
any  offspring,  on  the  ground  that  such  offspring  would  be  unde- 
sirable components  of  the  race? 

The  right  of  marriage  is  commonly,  and  may  well  be  properly, 
regarded  as  an  inalienable  right  of  the  individual,  in  so  far 
as  it  does  not  conflict  with  the  interests  of  the  race.  The  com- 
panionship of  two  persons  between  whom  true  love  exists,  is 
beyond  all  question  the  highest  happiness  possible,  and  one 
which  society  should  desire  and  strive  to  give  its  every  member. 
On  that  point  there  will  be  no  difference  of  opinion,  but  when 
it  is  asked  whether  there  can  be  a  separation  between  the  com- 
radeship aspect  and  the  reproduction  aspect,  in  marriage, 
whether  any  interest  of  the  race  can  justifiably  divorce  these 
two  phases,  often  considered  inseparable,  protests  are  at  once 
aroused.  In  these  protests,  there  is  some  justice.  We  would 
be  the  last  ones  to  deny  that  a  marriage  has  failed  to  achieve  its 
goal,  has  failed  to  realize  for  its  participants  the  greatest  possible 
happiness,  unless  it  has  resulted  in  sound  offspring. 

That  word  "sound"  is  the  key  to  the  distinction  which  must 
be  made.  The  interests  of  the  race  demand  sound  offspring 
from  every  couple  in  a  position  to  furnish  them — not  only  in  the 
interests  of  that  couple, — interests  the  importance  of  which  it  is 


DESIRABILITY  OF  RESTRICTIVE  EUGENICS     171 

not  easy  to  underestimate — but  in  the  interests  of  the  future  of 
the  race,  whose  welfare  far  transcends  in  importance  the  welfare 
of  any  one  individual,  or  any  pair  of  individuals.  As  surely  as 
the  race  needs  a  constant  supply  of  children  of  sound  char- 
acter, so  surely  is  it  harmed  by  a  supply  of  children  of  inherently 
unsound  character,  physically  or  mentally,  who  may  contribute 
others  like  themselves  to  the  next  generation.  A  recollection 
of  the  facts  of  heredity,  and  of  the  fact  that  the  offspring  of  any 
individual  tend  to  increase  in  geometric  ratio,  will  supply  ade- 
quate grounds  for  holding  this  conviction: — that  from  a  biologi- 
cal point  of  view,  every  child  of  congenitally  inferior  character 
is  a  racial  misfortune.  The  Spartans  and  other  peoples  of 
antiquity  fully  realized  this  fact,  and  acted  on  it  by  exposing 
deformed  infants.  Christianity  properly  revolted  as  such  an  ac- 
tion; but  in  repudiating  the  action,  it  lost  sight  of  the  principle 
back  of  the  action.  The  principle  should  have  been  regarded, 
and  civilized  races  are  now  coming  back  to  a  realization  of  that 
fact — are,  indeed,  realizing  its  weight  far  more  fully  than  any 
other  people  has  ever  done,  because  of  the  growing  realization 
of  the  importance  of  heredity.  No  one  is  likely  seriously  to  argue 
again  that  deformed  infants  (whether  their  deformity  be  physical 
or  mental)  should  be  exposed  to  perish;  but  the  argument  that  in 
the  interests  of  the  future  of  the  race  they  would  heller  nol  be 
born,  is  one  that  admits  of  no  refutation. 

From  a  biological  point  of  view,  then,  it  is  to  the  interest 
of  the  race  that  the  number  of  children  who  will  be  either  de- 
fective themselves,  or  transmit  anti-social  defects  to  their  off- 
spring, should  be  as  small  as  possible. 

2.  The  humanitarian  aspect  of  the  case  is  no  less  strong  and 
is  likely,  in  the  present  state  of  public  education,  to  move  a 
larger  number  of  individuals.  A  visit  to  the  children's  ward 
of  any  hospital,  an  acquaintance  with  the  sensitive  mother  of  a 
feeble-minded  or  deformed  child,  will  go  far  to  convince  anyone 
that  the  sum  total  of  human  happiness,  and  the  happiness  of  the 
parents,  would  be  greater  had  these  children  never  been  born. 
As  for  the  children  themselves,  they  will  in  many  cases  grow  up 
to  regret  that  they  were  ever  brought  into  the  world.    We  do  not 


172  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

overlook  the  occasional  genius  who  may  be  crippled  physically 
or  even  mentally;  we  are  here  dealing  with  only  the  extreme 
defectives,  such  as  the  feeble-minded,  insane,  and  epileptic. 
Among  such  persons,  human  happiness  would  be  promoted  both 
now  and  in  the  future  if  the  number  of  offspring  were  naught. 

/3.  There  is  another  argument  which  may  legitimately  be 
brought  forward,  and  which  may  appeal  to  some  who  are  rela- 
tively insensitive  to  the  biological  or  even  the  humanitarian' 
aspects  of  the  case.    This  is  the  financial  argument. 

Except  students  of  eugenics,  few  persons  realize  how  stag- 
gering is  the  bill  annually  paid  for  the  care  of  defectives.  The 
amount  which  the  state  of  New  York  expends  yearly  on  the 
maintenance  of  its  insane  wards,  is  greater  than  it  spends  for 
any  other  purpose  except  education;  and  in  a  very  few  years, 
if  its  insane  population  continues  to  increase  at  the  present  rate, 
it  will  spend  more  on  them  than  it  does  on  the  education  of  its 
normal  children.  The  cost  of  institutional  care  for  the  socially 
inadequate  is  far  from  being  all  that  these  people  cost  the  state; 
but  those  figures  at  least  are  not  based  on  guesswork.  The  an- 
nual cost  ^  of  maintaining  a  feeble-minded  ward  of  the  state, 
in  various  commonwealths,  is: 

r      ^^<\  Illinois $136. 

■    .^■_-'     Indiana 147 . 

Si    C(^'^  *"         ^     Minnesota 148. 

WA^    J                Ohio 155. 

Wisconsin 159 . 

Kansiis 170. 

Michigan 179. 

Kentucky 184 . 

California 208 . 

Maine 222 . 


At  such  prices,  each  state  maintains  hundreds,  sometimes 
thousands,  of  feeble-minded,  and  the  number  is  growing  each 
year.  In  the  near  future  the  expenditures  must  grow  much 
more  rapidly,  for  public  sentiment  is  beginning  to  demand  that 

'  Figures  furnished  (September,  191 7)  by  the  National  Committee  for  Mental 
Hygiene,  50  Union  Square,  New  York  City. 


TWO  JUKE  HOMES  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY 
Fig.  28. — ^The  Jukes  have  mostly  been  country-dwellers,  a  fact  which  has  tended  to 
increase  the  amount  of  consanguineous  marriage  among  them.  Removal  into  a  new 
environment  usually  does  not  mean  any  substantial  change  for  them,  because  they  suc- 
ceed im^nediately  in  re-creating  the  same  squalid  sort  of  an  environment  from  which 
they  came.  In  the  house  below,  one  part  was  occupied  by  the  family  and  the  other 
part  by  pigs.    Photographs  from  A.  H.  Estabrook. 


DESIRABILITY  OF  RESTRICTIVE  EUGENICS     173 

the  defectives  and  delinquents  of  the  community  be  properly 
cared  for.  The  financial  burden  is  becoming  a  heavy  one;  it 
will  become  a  crushing  one  unless  steps  are  taken  to  make  the 
feeble-minded  productive  (as  described  in  the  next  chapter) 
and  an  intangible  "sinking  fund"  at  the  same  time  created  to 
reduce  the  burden  gradually  by  preventing  the  production  of 
those  who  make  it  up.  The  burden  can  never  be  wholly 
obliterated,  but  it  can  be  largely  reduced  by  a  restriction  of 
the  reproduction  of  those  who  are  themselves  socially  in- 
adequate. 

Alike  then  on  biological,  humanitarian  and  financial  grounds, 
the  nation  would  be  the  better  for  a  diminution  in  the  production 
of  physically,  mentally  or  morally  defective  children.  And  the 
way  to  secure  this  diminution  is  to  prevent  reproduction  by 
parents  whose  offspring  would  almost  certainly  be  undesirable 
in  character. 

Granted  that  such  prevention  is  a  proper  function  of  society, 
the  question  again  arises  whether  it  is  an  ethically  correct  pro- 
cedure to  allow  these  potentially  undesirable  parents  to  marry 
at  all.  Should  they  be  doomed  to  perpetual  celibacy,  or  should 
they  be  permitted  to  mate,  on  condition  that  the  union  be  child- 
less. 

The  eugenic  interests  of  society,  of  course,  are  equally  safe- 
guarded by  either  alternative.  All  the  other  interests  of  society 
appear  to  us  to  be  better  safeguarded  by  marriage  than  by  cel- 
ibacy. Adding  the  interests  of  the  individual,  which  will  doubt- 
less be  for  marriage,  it  seems  to  us  that  there  is  good  reason 
for  holding  such  a  childless  marriage  ethically  correct,  in  the 
relatively  small  number  of  cases  where  it  might  seem  de- 
sirable. 

Though  such  unions  may  be  ethically  justifiable,  yet  they 
would  often  be  impracticable;  the  limits  will  be  discussed  in  the 
next  chapter. 

It  is  constantly  alleged  that  the  state  can  not  interfere  with  an 
individual  matter  of  this  sort:  "It  is  an  intolerable  invasion  of 
personal  liberty;  it  is  reducing  humanity  to  the  level  of  the  barn- 
yard; it  is  impossible  to  put  artificial  restraints  on  the  relations 


174  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

between  the  sexes,  founded  as  they  are  on  such  strong  and  primal 
feelings." 

The  doctrine  of  personal  liberty,  in  this  extreme  form,  was 
enunciated  and  is  maintained  by  people  who  are  ignorant  of 
biology  and  evolution;  *  people  who  are  ignorant  of  the  world  as 
it  is,  and  deal  only  with  the  world  as  they  think  it  ought  to  be. 
Nature  reveals  no  such  extreme  "law  of  personal  liberty," 
and  the  race  that  tries  to  carry  such  a  supposed  law  to  its  logical 
conclusion  will  soon  find,  in  the  supreme  test  of  competition 
with  other  races,  that  the  interests  of  the  individual  are  much  less 
important  to  nature  than  the  interests  of  the  race.  Perpetua- 
tion of  the  race  is  the  first  end  to  be  sought.  So  far  as  according 
a  wide  measure  of  personal  liberty  to  its  members  will  compass 
that  end,  the  personal  liberty  doctrine  is  a  good  one;  but  if  it 
is  held  as  a  metaphysical  dogma,  to  deny  that  the  race  may  take 
any  action  necessary  in  its  own  interest,  at  the  expense  of  the 
indi\adual,  this  dogma  becomes  suicidal. 

As  for  "reducing  humanity  to  the  level  of  the  bam-yard," 
this  is  merely  a  catch-phrase  intended  to  arouse  prejudice  and  to 
obscure  the  facts.  The  reader  may  judge  for  himself  whether 
the  eugenic  program  will  degrade  mankind  to  the  level  of  the 
brutes,  or  whether  it  will  ennoble  it,  beautify  it,  and  increase 
its  happiness. 

The  delusion  which  so  many  f)eople  hold,  that  it  is  impossible 
to  put  artificial  restraint  on  the  relations  between  the  sexes, 
is  amazing.  Restraint  is  already  a  fait  accompli.  Every  civi- 
lized nation  already  puts  restrictions  on  numerous  classes  of 
people,  as  has  been  noted — ^minors,  criminals,  and  the  insane, 
for  example.  Even  though  this  restriction  is  usually  based  on 
l^al,  rather  than  biological  grounds,  it  is  nevertheless  a  re- 

^  This  applies  eves^  to  sodi  an  acute  thinker  as  John  Stuart  MiU,  whose  ideas  were 
formed  in  the  pre-Darwinian  epoA,  and  whose  works  must  now  be  accepted  with 
great  reserve.  Darwin  was  quite  right  in  sajring,  "The  ignoring  of  all  transmitted 
mentaiqualitieswill,  as  it  seems  to  me,  be  hereafter  judged  as  a  most  serious  blemish 
intheworiLS(rfMr.  MiO."  {DescaUofMan,p.g&.)  A  quotation  from  the  Prwici/ila 
</  PeUlic4d  Economy  CV<J.  I,  p.  389)  will  give  an  idea  of  Mr.  Mill's  pmnt  of  view: 
"Of  an  the  vulgar  methods  of  escaping  from  the  effects  of  social  and  moral  influ- 
ences on  the  mind,  the  most  vulgar  b  that  of  attributing  diversities  of  conduct 
and  characffT  to  inherent  natural  differences"  I 


MONGOLIAN"  DEFICIENCY 


Fig.  29. — A  common  t3T)e  of  feeble-mindedness  is  accompanied  by  a  face  called  Mon- 
goloid, because  of  a  certain  resemblance  to  that  of  some  of  the  Mongolian  races  as  will  be 
noted  above.  The  mother  at  the  left  and  the  father  were  normal.  This  type  seems  not  to 
be  inherited,  but  due  to  some  other  influence, — Goddard  suggests  uterine  exhaustion  from 
many  too  frequent  pregnancies. 


DESIRABILITY  OF  RESTRICTIVE  EUGENICS     175 

striction,  and  sets  a  precedent  for  further  restrictions,  if  any 
precedent  were  needed. 

It  is,  we  conclude,  both  desirable  and  possible  to  enforce  cer- 
tain restrictions  on  marriage  and  parenthood.  What  these 
restrictions  may  be,  and  to  whom  they  should  be  applied,  is 
next  to  be  considered. 


CHAPTER  IX    • 
THE  DYSGENIC  CLASSES 

Before  examining  the  methods  by  which  society  can  put 
into  effect  some  measure  of  negative  or  restrictive  eugenics, 
it  may  be  well,  to  decide  what  classes  of  the  population  can  prop- 
erly fall  within  the  scope  of  such  treatment.  Strictly  speaking, 
the  problem  is  of  course  one  of  individuals  rather  than  classes, 
but  for  the  sake  of  convenience  it  will  be  treated  as  one  of  classes, 
it  being  understood  that  no  individual  should  be  put  under  re- 
striction with  eugenic  intent  merely  because  he  may  be  supposed 
to  belong  to  a  given  class;  but  that  each  case  must  be  investi- 
gated on  its  own  merits, — and  investigated  with  much  more  care 
than  has  hitherto  usually  been  thought  necessary  by  many 
of  those  who  have  advocated  restrictive  eugenic  measures. 

The  first  class  demanding  attention  is  that  of  those  feeble- 
minded whose  condition  is  due  to  heredity.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  feeble-minded  in  the 
United  States  owe  their  condition  directly  to  heredity,^  and  will 
transmit  it  to  a  large  per  cent  of  their  descendants,  if  they  have 
any.  Feeble-minded  persons  from  sound  stock,  whose  arrested 
development  is  due  to  scarlet  fever  or  some  similar  disease  of 
childhood,  or  to  accident,  are  of  course  not  of  direct  concern  to 
eugenists. 

The  number  of  patent  feeble-minded  in  the  United  States 
is  probably  not  less  than  300,000,  while  the  number  of  latent 
individuals — those  carrying  the  taint  in  their  germ-plasm  and 
capable  of  transmitting  it  to  their  descendants,  although  the 
individuals  themselves  may  show  good  mental  development — is 
necessarily  much    greater.    The  defect  is  highly  hereditary  in 

'  Feebkmindedness,  Us  Causes  and  Consequences.  By  H.  H.  Goddard,  director  of 
the  Research  Laboratory  of  the  Training  School  at  Vineland,  New  Jersey,  for  feeble- 
minded boys  and  girls.    New  York,  The  Macmillan  Co.,  1914. 

176 


THE  DYSGENIC  CLASSES  177 

nature:  when  two  innately  feeble-minded  persons  marry,  all 
their  ofTspring,  almost  without  exception,  are  feeble-minded. 
The  feeble-minded  are  never  of  much  value  to  society — they 
never  present  such  instances  as  are  found  among  the  insane, 
of  persons  with  some  mental  lack  of  balance,  who  are  yet  gen- 
iuses. If  restrictive  eugenics  dealt  with  no  other  class  than 
the  hereditarily  feeble-minded,  and  dealt  with  that  class  ef- 
fectively, it  would  richly  justify  its  existence. 

But  there  are  other  classes  on  which  it  can  act  with  safety 
as  well  as  profit,  and  one  of  these  is  made  up  by  the  germinally 
insane.  According  to  the  census  of  1910,  there  are  187,791  in- 
sane in  institutions  in  the  United  States;  there  are  also  a  certain 
number  outside  of  institutions,  as  to  whom  information  can  not 
easily  be  obtained.  The  number  in  the  hospitals  represented  a 
ratio  of  204.3  per  100,000  of  the  general  population.  In  18S0, 
when  the  enumeration  of  insane  was  particularly  complete,  a 
total  or9i,959  was  reported — a  ratio  of  1S8.3  per  100,000  of  the 
total  population  at  that  time.  This  apparent  increase  of  in- 
sanity  has  been  subjected  to  much  analysis,  and  it  is  admitted 
that  part  of  it  can  be  explained  away.  People  are  living  longer 
now  than  formerly,  and  as  insanity  is  primarily  a  disease  of  old 
age,  the  number  of  insane  is  thus  increased.  Better  means  of 
diagnosis  are  undoubtedly  responsible  for  some  of  the  apparent 
increase.  But  when  every  conceivable  allowance  is  made,  there 
yet  remains  ground  for  belief  that  the  proportion  of  insane  per- 
sons in  the  ])opulation  is  increasing  each  year.  This  is  partly 
due  to  immigration,  as  is  indicated  by  the  immense  and  con- 
stantly increasing  insane  population  of  the  state  of  New  York, 
where  most  immigrants  land.  In  some  cases,  people  who  actu- 
ally show  some  form  of  insanity  may  slip  past  the  examiners; 
in  the  bulk  of  cases,  probably,  an  individual  is  adapted  to  lead- 
ing a  normal  life  in  his  native  environment,  but  transfer  to  the 
more  strenuous  environment  of  an  American  city  proves  to  be 
too  much  for  his  nervous  organization.  The  general  flow  of 
population  from  the  country  to  large  cities  has  a  similar  efifect 
in  increasing  the  number  of  insane. 

But  when  all  is  said,  the  fact  remains  that  there  are  several 


178  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

hundred  thousand  insane  persons  in  the  United  States,  many 
of  whom  are  not  prevented  from  reproducing  their  kind,  and 
that  by  this  failure  to  restrain  them  society  is  putting  a  heavy 
burden  of  expense,  unhappiness  and  a  fearful  dysgenic  drag  on 
coming  generations. 

The  word  "insanity,"  as  is  frequently  objected,  means  little  or 
nothing  from  a  biological  point  of  view — it  is  a  sort  of  catch-all 
to  describe  many  different  kinds  of  nervous  disturbance.  No 
one  can  properly  be  made  the  subject  of  restrictive  measures  for 
eugenic  reasons,  merely  because  he  is  said  to  be  "insane."  It 
would  be  wholly  immoral  so  to  treat,  for  example,  a  man  or 
woman  who  was  suffering  from  the  form  of  insanity  which  some- 
times follows  typhoid  fever.  But  there  are  certain  forms  of 
mental  disease,  generally  lumped  under  the  term  "insanity," 
which  indicate  a  hereditarily  disordered  nervous  organiza- 
tion, and  individuals  suffering  from  one  of  these  diseases 
should  certainly  not  be  given  any  chance  to  perpetuate  their 
insanity  to  posterity.  Two  types  of  insanity  are  now  recognized 
as  especially  transmissible: — dementia  precox,  a  sort  of  pre- 
/  cocious  old  age,  in  which  the  patient  (generally  young)  sinks 
into  a  lethargy  from  which  he  rarely  recovers;  and  maiiic- 
'^  depressive  insanity,  an  over-excitable  condition,  in  which  there 
are  occasional  very  erratic  motor  discharges,  alternating  with 
periods  of  depression.  Constitutional  psychopathic  inferiority, 
which  means  a  lack  of  emotional  adaptability,  usually  shows  in 
the  family  history.  The  common  type  of  insanity  which  is 
characterized  by  mild  hallucinations  is  of  less  concern  from  a 
eugenic  point  of  view. 

In  general,  the  insane  are  more  adequately  restricted  than  any 
other  dysgenic  class  in  the  community;  not  because  the  com- 
munity recognizes  the  disadvantage  of  letting  them  reproduce 
their  kind,  but  because  there  is  a  general  fear  of  them,  which 
leads  to  their  strict  segregation;  and  because  an  insane  person 
is  not  considered  legally  competent  to  enter  into  a  marriage 
contract.  In  general,  the  present  isolation  of  the  sexes  at 
institutions  for  the  insane  is  satisfactory;  the  principal  problem 
which  insanity  presents  lies  in  the  fact  that  an  individual  is 


THE  DYSGENIC  CLASSES  179 

frequently  committed  to  a  hospital  or  asylum,  kept  there  a  few- 
years  until  apparently  cured,  and  then  discharged;  whereupon 
he  returns  to  his  family  to  beget  offspring  that  are  fairly  likely 
to  become  insane  at  some  period  in  their  lives.  Every  case  of 
insanity  should  be  accompanied  by  an  investigation  of  the 
patient's  ancestry,  and  if  there  is  unmistakable  evidence  of 
serious  neuropathic  taint,  such  steps  as  are  necessary  should  be 
taken  to  prevent  that  individual  from  becoming  a  parent  at  any 
time. 

The  hereditary  nature  of  most  types  of  epilej^  is  generally 
held  to  be  established,^  and  restrictive  measures  should  be  used 
to  prevent  the  increase  of  the  number  of  epileptics  in  the  coun- 
try. It  has  been  calculated  that  the  number  of  epileptics  in  the 
state  of  New  Jersey,  where  the  most  careful  investigation  of  the 
problem  has  been  made,  will  double  every  30  years  under 
present  conditions. 

In  dealing  with  both  insanity  and  epilepsy,  the  eugenist 
faces  the  difficulty  that  occasionally  people  of  the  very  kind 
whose~^roduction  he  most  wishes  to  see  encouraged — real 
geniuses — may  carry  the  taint.  The  exaggerated  claims  of  the 
Italian  anthropologist  C.  Lombroso  and  his  school,  in  regard  to 
the  close  relation  between  genius  and  insanity,  have  been 
largely  disproved;  yet  there  remains  little  doubt  that  the  two 
sometimes  do  go  together;  and  such  supposed  epileptics  as 
Mohammed,  Julius  Caesar,  and  Napoleon  will  at  once  be  called 
to  mind.  To  apply  sweeping  restrictive  measures  would  pre- 
vent the  production  of  a  certain  amount  of  talent  of  a  very  high 
order.  The  situation  can  only  be  met  by  dealing  with  every  case 
on  its  individual  merits,  and  recognizing  that  it  is  to  the  inter- 
ests of  society  to  allow  some  very  superior  individuals  to  repro- 
duce, even  though  part  of  their  posterity  may  be  mentally  or 
physically  somewhat  unsound. 

A  field  survey  in  two  typical  counties  of  Indiana  (1916)  showed 
that  there  were  1.8  recognizable  epileptics  per  thousand  popula- 

'  Probably  the  word  now  covers  a  congeries  of  defects,  some  of  which  may  be  pon- 
germinal.  Epilepsy  is  so  very  generally  found  associated  with  various  other  con- 
genital defects,  that  action  should  not  be  delayed. 


i8o  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

tion.  If  these  figures  should  approximately  hold  good  for  the 
entire  United  States,  the  number  of  epileptics  can  hardly  be  put 
at  less  than  1 50,000.  Some  of  them  are  not  anti-social,  but  many 
of  them  are. 

Feeble-mindedness  and  insanity  were  also  included  in  the 
census  mentioned,  and  the  total  number  of  the  three  kinds  of 
defectives  was  found  to  be  19  per  thousand  in  one  county  and 
1 1 . 4  per  thousand  in  the  other.  This  would  suggest  a  total  for 
the  entire  United  States  of  something  like  one  million. 

In  addition  to  these  well-recognized  classes  of  hopelessly 
defective,  there  is  a  class  of  defectives  embracing  very  diverse 
\  characteristics,  which  demands  careful  consideration.  In  it  are 
Uhose  who  are  germinally  physical  weaklings  or  deformed,  those 
born  with  a  hereditary  diathesis  or  predisposition  toward  some 
serious  disease  (e.  g.i  Huntington's  Chorea),  and  those  with  some 
gross  defect  of  the  organs  of  special  sense.  The  germinally 
blind  and  deaf  will  particularly  occur  to  mind  in  the  latter  con- 
nection. Cases  falling  in  this  category  demand  careful  scrutiny 
by  biological  and  psychological  experts,  before  any  action  can 
be  taken  in  the  interest  of  eugenics;  in  many  cases  the  affected 
individual  himself  will  be  glad  to  cooperate  with  society  by 
remaining  celibate  or  by  the  practice  of  birth  control,  to  the 
end  of  leaving  no  offspring  to  bear  what  he  has  borne. 

Finally,  we  come  to  the  great  class  of  delinquents  who  have 
hitherto  been  made  the  particular  object  of  solicitude,  on  the 
part  of  those  who  have  looked  with  favor  upon  sterilization 
legislation.  The  chronic  inebriate,  the  confirmed  criminal,  the 
prostitute,  the  pauper,  all  deserve  careful  study  by  the  eugenist. 
In  many  cases  they  will  be  found  to  be  feeble-minded,  and 
proper  restriction  of  the  feebleminded  will  meet  their  cases. 
Thus  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  from  a  third  to  two-thirds  of 
the  prostitutes  in  American  cities  are  feeble-minded.^  They 
should  be  committed  to  institutions  for  the  feeble-minded  and 
kept  there.  It  is  certain  that  many  of  the  pauper  class,  which 
fills  up  almshouses,  are  similarly  deficient.  Indeed,  the  census 
of  1910  discovered  that  of  the  84,198  paupers  in  institutions  on 

^  Goddard,  H.  H.,  Feeble-Mindedness,  pp.  14-16. 


THE  DYSGENIC  CLASSES  i8i 

the  first  of  January  in  that  year,  13,238  were  feeble-minded, 
3,518  insane,  2,202  epileptic,  918  deaf-mute,  3,375  blind,  13,753 
crippled,  maimed  or  deformed.  A  total  of  63 . 7%  of  the  whole 
had  some  serious  physical  or  mental  defect.  Obviously,  most 
of  these  would  be  taken  care  of  under  some  other  heading, 
in  the  program  of  restrictive  eugenics.  While  paupers  should 
be  prohibited  from  reproduction  as  long  as  they  are  in  state 
custody,  car^ul__discrimination  is  necessary  in  the  treatment 
of  those  whose  condition  is  due  more  to  environment  than 
heredity. 

In  a  consideration  of  the  chronic  inebriate,  the  problem  of 
environmental  influences  is  again  met  in  an  acute  form,  aggra- 
vated by  the  venom  of  controversy  engendered  by  bigotry  and 
self-interest.  That  many  chronic  inebriates  owe  their  condition 
almost  wholly  to  heredity,  and  are  likely  to  leave  offspring  of  the 
same  character,  is  indisputable.  As  to  the  possibility  of  "re- 
forming "  such  an  individual,  there  may  be  room  for  a  difference 
of  opinion;  as  to  the  possibility  of  reforming  his  ^erm-plasni, 
there  can  be  none.  Society  owes  them  the  best  possible  care, 
and  part  of  its  care  should  certainly  be  to  see  that  they  do  not 
reproduce  their  kind.  As  to  the  borderland  cases — and  in  the 
matter  of  inebriety  borderland  is  perhaps  bigger  than  mainland — 
it  is  doubtful  whether  much  direct  action  can  be  taken  in  the 
present  state  of  scientific  knowledge  and  of  public  sentiment. 
Education  of  public  opinion  to  avoid  marriage  with  drunkards 
will  probably  be  the  most  effective  means  of  procedure. 

Finally,  there  is  the  criminal  class,  over  which  the  respective 
champions  of  heredity  and  environment  have  so  often  waged 
partisan  warfare.  There  is  pjobably  no  field  in  which  restric- 
tive eugenics  would  think  of  interfering,  where  it  encounters  so 
much  danger  as  here — danger  of  wronging  both  the  individual 
and  society.  Laws  such  as  have  been  passed  in  several  states, 
providing  for  the  sterilization  of  criminals  as  such,  must  be  de- 
plored by  the  eugenist  as  much  as  they  are  by  the  gseudo- 
sociologist  who  "does  not  believe  in  heredity";  but  this  is  not 
saying  that  there  are  not  many  cases  in  which  eugenic  action  is 
desirable ;  for  inheritance  of  a  lack  of  emotional  control  makes  a 


><- 


1 82  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

man  in  one  sense  a  "born  criminal."  ^  He  is  not,  in  most  re- 
spects, the  creature  which  he  was  made  out  to  be  by  Lombroso 
and  his  followers;  but  he  exists,  nevertheless,  and  no  ameliora- 
tive treatment  given  him  will  be  of  such  value  to  society  as 
preventing  his  reproduction. 

The  feeble-minded  who  make  up  a  large  proportion  of  the 
petty  criminals  that  fill  the  jails,  must,  of  course,  be  excluded 
from  this  discussion  except  to  note  that  their  conviction  assists 
in  discovering  their  defect.  They  should  be  treated  as  feeble- 
minded, not  as  criminals.^  Those  who  may  have  been  made 
criminals  by  society,  by  their  environment,  must  also  be  ex- 
cepted. In  an  investigation,  the  benefit  of  the  doubt  should  be 
given  to  the  individual.  But  when  every  possible  concession  is 
made  to  the  influence  of  environment,  the  psychiatric  study  of 
the  individual  and  the  investigation  of  his  family  history  still 
show  that  there  are  criminals  who  congenitally  lack  the  inhibi- 
tions and  instincts  which  make  it  possible  for  others  to  be  useful 
members  of  society.^  When  a  criminal  of  this  natural  type  is 
found,  the  duty  of  society  is  unquestionably  to  protect  itself  by 
cutting  off  that  line  of  descent. 

This,  we  believe,  covers  all  the  classes  which  are  at  this  time 
proper  subjects  for  direct  restrictive  action  with  eugenic  intent; 

'  See  the  recent  studies  of  C.  B.  Davenp)ort,  particularly  The  Feebly  Inhibited, 
Washington,  Carnegie  Institution,  1915. 

^  In  this  connection  diagnosis  is  naturally  of  the  utmost  importance.  The  recent 
action  of  Chicago,  New  York,  Boston,  and  other  cities,  in  establishing  psychological 
clinics  for  the  examination  of  offenders  is  a  great  step  in  advance.  These  clinics 
should  be  attached  to  the  police  department,  as  in  New  York,  not  merely  to  the 
courts,  and  should  pass  on  offenders  before,  not  after,  trial  and  commitment. 

'  As  a  result  of  psychiatric  study  of  the  inmates  of  Sing  Sing  in  1916,  it  was  said 
that  two-thirds  of  them  showed  some  mental  defect.  Examination  of  100  convicts 
selected  at  random  in  the  Massachusetts  State  Prison  showed  that  29%  were  feeble- 
minded and  11%  borderline  cases.  The  highest  percentage  of  mental  defectives 
was  found  among  criminals  serving  sentence  for  murder  in  the  second  degree,  man- 
slaughter, burglary  and  robbery.  (Rossy,  C.  S.,  in  Stale  Board  of  Insanity  Bull., 
Boston,  Nov.,  1915).  Paul  M.  Bowers  told  the  1916  meeting  of  the  American 
Prison  Association  of  his  study  of  100  recidivists,  each  of  whom  had  been  convicted 
not  fewer  than  four  times.  Of  these  12  were  insane,  23  feeble-minded  and  10  epilep- 
tic, and  in  each  case  Dr.  Bowers  said  the  mental  defect  bore  a  direct  causal  relation 
to  the  crime  committed.  Such  studies  argue  for  the  need  of  a  little  elementary 
biology  in  the  administration  of  justice. 


THE  DYSGENIC  CLASSES  183 

and  we  repeat  that  the  problem  is  not  to  deal  with  classes  as  a 
whole,  but  to  deal  with  individuals  of  the  kind  described,  for  the 
sake  of  convenience,  in  the  above  categories.  Artificial  class 
names  mean  nothing  to  evolution.  It  would  be  a  crime  to  cut 
off  the  posterity  of  a  desirable  member  of  society  merely  be- 
cause he  happened  to  have  been  popularly  stigmatized  by  some 
class  name  that  carried  opprobrium  with  it.  Similarly  it  would 
be  immoral  to  encourage  or  permit  the  reproduction  of  a  man- 
ifestly defective  member  of  society  of  the  kinds  indicated,  even 
though  that  individual  might  in  some  way  have  secured  the 
protection  of  a  class  name  that  was  generally  considered  de- 
sirable. Bearing  this  in  mind,  we  believe  no  one  can  object  to  a 
proposal  to  prevent  the  reproduction  of  those  feeble-minded, 
insane,  epileptic,  grossly  defective  or  hopelessly  delinquent 
people,  whose  condition  can  be  proved  to  be  due  to  heredity  and 
is  therefore  probably  transmissible  to  their  offspring.  We  can 
imagine  only  one  objection  that  might  be  opposed  to  all  the 
advantages  of  such  a  program — namely,  that  no  proper  means 
can  be  found  for  putting  it  into  effect.  This  objection  is  occa- 
sionally urged,  but  we  believe  it  to  be  wholly  without  weight. 
We  now  propose  to  examine  the  various  possible  methods  of 
restrictive  eugenics,  and  to  inquire  which  of  them  society  can 
most  profitably  adopt. 


CHAPTER  X 
METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION 

The  means  of  restriction  can  be  divided  into  coercive  and  non- 
coercive. We  shall  discuss  the  former  first,  interpreting  the 
word  "coercive"  very  broadly. 

From  an  historical  point  of  view,  the  first  method  which  pre- 
sents itself  is  execution.  This  has  been  used  since  the  beginning 
of  the  race,  very  probably,  although  rarely  with  a  distinct 
understanding  of  its  eugenic  effect;  and  its  value  in  keeping  up 
the  standard  of  the  race  should  not  be  underestimated.  It  is  a 
method  the  use  of  which  prevents  the  rectification  of  mistakes. 
There  are  argvunents  against  it  on  other  grounds,  which  need 
not  be  discussed  here,  since  it  suffices  to  say  that  to  put  to 
death  defectives  or  delinquents  is  wholly  out  of  accord  with 
the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  is  not  seriously  considered  by  the 
eugenics  movement. 

The  next  possible  method  is  castration.  This  has  practically 
nothing  to  recommend  it,  except  that  it  is  effective — an  argu- 
ment that  can  also  be  made  for  the  "lethal  chamber."  The  ob- 
jections against  it  are  overwhelming.  It  has  hardly  been  ad- 
vocated, even  by  extremists,  save  for  those  whose  sexual  in- 
stincts are  extremely  disordered;  but  such  advocacy  is  based 
on  ignorance  of  the  results.  As  a  fact,  castration  frequently 
does  not  diminish  the  sexual  impulses.  Its  use  should  be  limited 
to  cases  where  desirable  for  therapeutic  reasons  as  well. 

It  is  possible,  however,  to  render  either  a  man  or  woman 
sterile  by  a  much  less  serious  operation  than  castration.  This 
operation,  which  has  gained  wide  attention  in  recent  years  under 
the  name  of  "sterilization,"  usually  takes  the  form  of  vasectomy 
in  man  and  salpingectomy  in  woman;  it  is  desirable  that  the 
reader  should  have  a  clear  understanding  of  its  nature. 

Vasectomy  is  a  trivial  operation  performed  in  a  few  minutes, 

184 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  185 

almost  painlessly  with  the  use  of  cocain  as  a  local  anaesthetic; 
it  is  sometimes  performed  with  no  anaesthetic  whatever.  The 
patient's  sexual  life  is  not  affected  in  any  way,  save  in  the  one 
respect  that  he  is  sterile. 

Salpingectomy  is  more  serious,  because  the  operation  can  not 
be  performed  so  near  the  surface  of  the  body.  The  sexual  life 
of  the  subject  is  in  no  way  changed,  save  that  she  is  rendered 
barren;  but  the  operation  is  attended  by  illness  and  exp>ense. 

The  general  advantage  claimed  for  sterilization,  as  a  method 
of  preventing  the  reproduction  of  persons  whose  offspring  would 
probably  be  a  detriment  to  race  progress,  is  the  accomplishment 
of  the  end  in  view  without  much  expense  to  the  state,  and  with- 
out interfering  with  the  "Uberty  and  pursuit  of  happiness"  of 
the  individual.  The  general  objection  to  it  is  that  by  removing 
all  fear  of  consequences  from  an  individual,  it  is  likely  to  lead 
to  the  spread  of  sexual  immorality  and  venereal  disease.  This 
objection  is  entitled  to  some  consideration;  but  there  exists  a  still 
more  fundamental  objection  against  sterilization  as  a  program 
— ^namely,  that  it  is  sometimes  not  fair  to  the  individual.  Its 
eugenic  effects  may  be  all  that  are  desired;  but  in  some  cases  its 
euthenic  effects  must  frequently  be  deplorable.  Most  of  the  p>er- 
sons  whom  it  is  proposed  to  sterilize  are  utterly  unfit  to  hold  their 
own  in  the  world,  in  competition  with  normal  people.  For  s(x;iety 
to  sterilize  the  feeble-minded,  the  insane,  the  alcoholic,  the  bom 
criminals,  the  epileptic,  and  then  turn  them  out  to  shift  for 
themselves,  saying,  "We  have  no  further  concern  with  you,  now 
that  we  know  you  will  leave  no  children  behind  you,"  is  unwise. 
People  of  this  sort  should  be  humanely  isolated,  so  that  they 
will  be  brought  into  competition  only  with  their  own  kind;  and 
they  should  be  kept  so  segregated,  not  only  until  they  have 
passed  the  reproductive  age,  but  until  death  brings  them  relief 
from  their  misfortunes.  Such  a  course  is,  in  most  cases,  the 
only  one  worthy  of  a  Christian  nation;  and  it  is  obvious  that 
if  such  a  course  is  followed,  the  sexes  can  be  effectively  sepa- 
rated without  difficulty,  and  any  sterilization  operation  will  be 
unnecessary. 

Generally  speaking,  the  only  objection  urged  against  segre- 


i86  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

gation  is  that  of  expense.  In  reply,  it  may  be  said  that  the  ex- 
pense will  decrease  steadily,  when  segregation  is  viewed  as  a 
long-time  investment,  because  the  number  of  future  wards  of 
the  state  of  any  particular  type  will  be  decreasing  every  year. 
Moreover,  a  large  part  of  the  expense  can  be  met  by  properly 
organizing  the  labor  of  the  inmates.  This  is  particularly  true 
of  the  feeble-minded,  who  will  make  up  the  largest  part  of  the 
burden  because  of  their  numbers  and  the  fact  that  most 
of  them  are  not  now  under  state  care.  As  for  the  insane, 
epileptic,  incorrigibly  criminal,  and  the  other  defectives  and 
delinquents  embraced  in  the  program,  the  state  is  already 
taking  care  of  a  large  proportion  of  them,  and  the  addi- 
tional expense  of  making  this  care  lifelong,  and  extending  it 
to  those  not  yet  under  state  control,  but  equally  deserving  of  it, 
could  probably  be  met  by  better  organization  of  the  labor  of  the 
persons  involved,  most  of  whom  are  able  to  do  some  sort  of 
work  that  will  at  least  cover  the  cost  of  their  maintenance. 

That  the  problem  is  less  serious  than  has  often  been  supposed, 
may  be  illustrated  by  the  following  statement  from  H.  Hastings 
Hart  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation : 

"Of  the  10,000  (estimated)  mentally  defective  women  of 
child-bearing  age  in  the  state  of  New  York,  only  about  1,750  are 
cared  for  in  institutions  designated  for  the  care  of  the  feeble- 
minded, and  about  4,000  are  confined  in  insane  asylums,  re- 
formatories and  prisons,  while  at  least  4,000  (probably  many 
more)  are  at  large  in  the  community. 

"With  reference  to  the  4,000  feeble-minded  who  are  confined 
in  hospitals  for  insane,  prisons  and  reformatories  and  almshouses, 
the  state  would  actually  be  the  financial  gainer  by  providing  for 
them  in  custodial  institutions.  At  the  Rome  Custodial  Asylum 
1,230  inmates  are  humanely  cared  for  at  $2.39  per  week.  The 
same  class  of  inmates  is  being  cared  for  in  the  boys '  reformato- 
ries at  $4.66;  in  the  hospitals  for  insane  at  $3.90;  in  the  girls' 
reformatory  at  $5.47,  and  in  the  almshouse  at  about  $1.25.  If 
all  of  these  persons  were  transferred  to  an  institution  conducted 
on  the  scale  of  the  Rome  Custodial  Asylum,  they  would  not  only 
relieve  these  other  institutions  of  inmates  who  do  not  belong 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  187 

there  and  who  are  a  great  cause  of  care  and  anxiety,  but  they 
would  make  room  for  new  patients  of  the  proper  class,  obviating 
the  necessity  for  enlargement.  The  money  thus  saved  would 
build  ample  institutions  for  the  care  of  these  people  at  a  much 
less  per  capita  cost  than  that  of  the  prisons,  reformatories  and 
asylums  where  they  are  now  kept,  and  the  annual  per  capita  cost 
of  maintenance  would  be  reduced  from  20  to  50  per  cent.,  ex- 
cept in  almshouses,  where  the  cost  would  be  increased  about  $1 
per  week,  but  the  almshouse  inmates  compose  only  a  small 
fraction  of  the  whole  number. 

"I  desire  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  one-half  of  the  feeble- 
minded of  this  state  are  already  under  public  care,  but  that 
two-thirds  of  them  are  cared  for  in  the  wrong  kind  of  institu- 
tions. This  diflficulty  can  be  remedied  without  increasing  the 
public  burden,  in  the  manner  already  suggested.  That  leaves 
15,000  feeble-minded  for  whom  no  provision  has  yet  been  made. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  these  15,000  persons  are  being  cared 
for  in  some  way.  We  do  not  allow  them  to  starve  to  death,  but 
they  are  fed,  clothed  and  housed,  usually  by  the  self-denying 
labor  of  their  relatives.  Thousands  of  poor  mothers  are  giving 
up  their  lives  largely  to  the  care  of  a  feeble-minded  child,  but 
these  mothers  are  unable  to  so  protect  them  from  becoming  a 
menace  to  the  community,  and,  in  the  long  run,  it  would  be  far 
more  economical  for  the  community  to  segregate  them  in  in- 
stitutions than  to  allow  them  to  remain  in  their  homes,  only  to 
become  ultimately  paupers,  criminals,  prostitutes  or  parents 
of  children  like  themselves." 

Some  sort  of  provision  is  now  made  for  some  of  the  feeble- 
minded in  every  state  excepting  eleven,  viz. :  Alabama,  Arizona, 
Florida,  Georgia,  Louisiana,  Nevada,  New  Mexico,  South 
Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Utah  and  West  Virginia.  Delaware 
sends  a  few  cases  to  Pennsylvania  institutions;  other  states 
sometimes  care  for  especially  difficult  cases  in  hospitals  for  the 
insane.  The  District  of  Columbia  should  be  added  to  the  list, 
as  having  no  institution  for  the  care  of  its  800  or  more  feeble- 
minded.   Alaska  is  likewise  without  such  an  institution. 

Of  the  several  hundred  thousand  feeble-minded  persons  in  the 


i88  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

United  States,  probably  not  more  than  a  tenth  are  getting  the 
institutional  care  which  is  needed  in  most  cases  for  their  own 
happiness,  and  in  nearly  every  case  for  the  protection  of  society. 
It  is  evident  that  a  great  deal  of  new  machinery  must  be  created, 
or  old  institutions  extended,  to  meet  this  pressing  problem —  ^  a 
problem  to  which,  fortunately,  the  public  is  showing  signs  of 
awakening.  In  our  opinion,  the  most  promising  attempt  to 
solve  the  problem  has  been  made  by  the  Training  School  of 
yineland,  New  Jersey,  through  its  "Colony  Plan."  Superin- 
tendent E.  R.  Johnstone  of  the  Training  School  describes  the 
possibilities  of  action  along  this  line,  as  follows:  ^ 

There  are  idiots,  imbeciles,  morons  and  backward  children.  The 
lorons  and  the  backward  children  are  found  in  the  public  schools 
large  numbers.  Goddard's  studies  showed  twelve  per  cent,  of  an 
ntire  school  district  below  the  high  school  to  be  two  or  three  years 
ehind  their  grades,  and  three  per  cent,  four  or  more  years  behind. 
It  is  difficult  for  the  expert  to  draw  the  line  between  these  two 
classes,  and  parents  and  teachers  are  loth  to  admit  that  the  morons 
are  defective.  This  problem  can  best  be  solved  by  the  establishment 
of  sp)ecial  classes  in  the  public  schools  for  aU  who  lag  more  than  one 
year  behind.  If  for  no  other  reason,  the  normal  children  should  be 
reheved  of  the  drag  of  these  backward  pupils.  The  special  classes 
will  become  the  clearing  houses.  The  training  should  be  largely 
manual  and  industrial  and  as  practical  as  possible.  As  the  number  of 
classes  in  any  school  district  increases,  the  classification  will  sift  out 
those  who  are  merely  backward  and  a  Ktde  coaching  and  special 
attention  wUl  return  them  to  the  grades.  The  others — the  morons- 
will  remain  and  as  long  as  they  are  not  dangerous  to  society  (sexually 
or  otherwise)  they  may  Uve  at  home  and  attend  the  special  classes. 
As  they  grow  older  they  wUl  be  transferred  to  proper  custodial  in- 
stitutions. In  the  city  districts,  where  there  are  many  classes,  this 
will  occur  between  twelve  and  sixteen  years  of  age.  In  the  country 
districts  it  wiU  occur  earlier. 

•  For  a  sane  and  cautious  discussion  of  the  subject  see  Wallin,  J.  E.  W.,  "A  Pro- 
gram for  the  State  Care  of  the  Feeble-Minded  and  Epileptic,"  School  and  Society, 
rV,  pp.  724-731,  New  York,  Nov.  11,  1916. 

'Johnstone,  E.  R.,  "Waste  Land  Plus  Waste  Humanity,"  Training  School  Bulle- 
tin, XI,  pp.  60-63,  Vineland,  N.  J.,  June,  1914. 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  189 

These  institutions  will  be  the  training  schools  and  will  form  the 
center  for  the  training  and  care  of  the  other  two  groups,  i.  e.,  the 
imbeciles  and  idiots.  Branching  out  from  the  training  schools  should 
be  colonies  (unless  the  parent  institution  is  on  a  very  large  tract  of 
ground,  which  is  most  advisable).  These  colonies,  or  groups  of  com- 
paratively small  buildings,  should  be  of  two  classes.  For  the  imbeciles, 
simple  buildings  costing  from  two  to  four  hundred  dollars  per  inmate. 
The  imits  might  well  be  one  hundred.  A  unit  providing  four  dormi- 
tories, bath  house,  dining-halls,  employees'  buUdings,  pump  house, 
water  tank,  sewage  disposal,  laundry,  stables  and  farm  buUdings 
can  be  buUt  within  the  above  figures  providing  the  buildings  are  of 
simple  construction  and  one  story.  This  has  been  done  at  Vineland 
by  having  the  larger  imbecile  and  moron  boys  make  the  cement  blocks 
of  which  the  buildings  are  constructed. 

For  the  idiots  the  construction  can  be  much  the  same.  Larger 
porches  facing  the  south  and  more  toilet  fixtures  wUI  be  necessary, 
and  so  add  a  little  to  the  cost. 

The  colony  should  be  located  on  rough  uncleared  land — ^preferable 
forestry  land.  Here  these  unskilled  fellows  find  happy  and  useful 
occupation,  waste  humanity  taking  waste  land  and  thus  not  only 
contributing  toward  their  own  support,  but  also  making  over  land 
that  would  otherwise  be  useless. 

One  reason  for  building  inexpensive  buildings  is  that  having  cleared 
a  large  tract — say  1,000  acres — the  workers  can  be  moved  to  another 
waste  tract  and  by  brushing,  clearing  of  rocks,  draining  and  what 
not,  increase  its  value  sufficiently  to  keep  on  moving  indefinitely. 

Many  of  these  boy-men  make  excellent  farmers,  dairymen,  swine- 
herds and  poultry  raisers  under  proper  direction,  and  in  the  winter 
they  can  work  in  the  taUor,  paint,  carpenter,  mattress  and  mat 
shops. 

Nor  need  this  be  confined  to  the  males  alone.  The  girl-women 
raise  jwultry,  small  fruits  and  vegetables  very  successfully.  They 
pickle  and  can  the  products  of  the  land,  and  in  winter  do  knitting, 
netting  and  sewing  of  all  kinds. 

No  manufacturer  of  to-day  has  let  the  product  of  his  plant  go  to 
waste  as  society  has  wasted  the  energies  of  this  by-product  of  hu- 
manity. And  the  feeble-minded  are  happy  when  they  have  occupa- 
tion suited  to  their  needs.  If  one  will  but  see  them  when  they  are 
set  at  occupations  within  their  comprehension  and  ability,  he  will 
quickly  understand  the  joy  they  get  out  of  congenial  work. 


iQo  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Colonies  such  as  Mr.  Johnstone  describes  will  take  care  of  the 
able-bodied  feeble-minded;  other  institutions  will  provide  for 
the  very  young  and  the  aged;  finally,  there  will  always  be  many 
of  these  defectives  who  can  best  be  "segregated"  in  their  own 
homes;  whose  relatives  have  means  and  inclination  to  care  for 
them,  and  sufficient  feeling  of  responsibility  to  see  that  the 
interests  of  society  are  protected.  If  there  is  any  doubt  on  this 
last  point,  the  state  should  itself  assume  charge,  or  should 
sterilize  the  defective  individuals;  but  it  is  not  likely  that 
sterilization  will  need  to  be  used  to  any  large  extent  in  the  solu- 
tion of  this  problem.  In  general  it  may  be  said  that  feeble- 
mindedness is  the  greatest  single  dysgenic  problem  facing  the 
country,  that  it  can  be  effectively  solved  by  segregation,  and 
that  it  presents  no  great  difficulty  save  the  initial  one  of  arousing 
the  public  to  its  importance. 

Similarly  the  hereditarily  insane  and  epileptic  can  best  be 
cared  for  through  life-long  segregation — a  course  which  society  is 
likely  to  adopt  readily,  because  of  a  general  dread  of  having 
insane  and  epileptic  persons  at  liberty  in  the  community.  There 
are  undoubtedly  cases  where  the  relatives  of  the  afifected  in- 
dividual can  and  should  assume  responsibility  for.  his  care. 
No  insane  or  epileptic  person  whose  condition  is  probably  of  a 
hereditary  character  should  be  allowed  to  leave  an  institution 
unless  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  he  or  she  will  not  become  a 
parent:  if  sterilization  is  the  only  means  to  assure  this,  then  it 
should  be  used.  In  many  cases  it  has  been  found  that  the  in- 
dividual and  his  relatives  welcome  such  a  step. 

The  habitual  criminals,  the  chronic  alcoholics,  and  the  other 
defectives  whom  we  have  mentioned  as  being  undesirable 
parents,  wull  in  most  cases  need  to  be  given  institutional  care 
throughout  life,  in  their  own  interest  as  well  as  that  of  society. 
This  is  already  being  done  with  many  of  them,  and  the  extension 
of  the  treatment  involves  no  new  principle  nor  special  difficulty. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that,  from  a  eugenic  point  of  view, 
the  essential  element  in  segregation  is  not  so  much  isolation  from 
society,  but  separation  of  the  two  sexes.  Properly  operated, 
segregation  increases  the  happiness  of  the  individuals  segregated, 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  igi 

as  well  as  working  to  the  advantage  of  the  body  politic.  In 
most  cases  the  only  objection  to  it  is  the  expense,  and  this, 
as  we  have  shown,  need  not  be  an  insuperable  difficulty.  For 
these  reasons,  we  believe  that  segregation  is  the  best  way  in 
which  to  restrict  the  reproduction  of  those  whose  offspring  could 
hardly  fail  to  be  undesirable,  and  that  sterilization  should  be 
looked  upon  only  as  an  adjunct,  to  be  used  in  special  cases 
where  it  may  seem  advantageous  to  allow  an  individual  full 
liberty,  or  partial  liberty,  and  yet  where  he  or  she  can  not  be 
trusted  to  avoid  reproduction. 

Having  reached  this  point  in  the  discussion  of  restrictive 
eugenics,  it  may  be  profitable  to  consider  the  so-called  "eugenic 
laws  "  which  have  been  before  the  public  in  many  states  during 
recent  years.  They  are  one  of  the  first  manifestations  of  an 
awakening  public  conscience  on  the  subject  of  eugenics;  they 
show  that  the  public,  or  part  of  it,  feels  the  necessity  of  action; 
they  equally  show  that  the  principles  which  should  guide  re- 
strictive eugenics  are  not  properly  understood  by  most  of  those 
who  have  interested  themselves  in  the  legislative  side  of  the 
program. 

Twelve  states  now  have  laws  on  their  statute  books  (but  / 
usually  not  in  force)  providing  for  the  sterilization  of  certain 
classes  of  individuals.  Similar  laws  have  been  passed  in  a  num- 
ber of  other  states,  but  were  vetoed  by  the  governors;  while  in 
many  others  bills  have  been  introduced  but  not  passed.  We 
shall  review  only  the  bills  which  are  actually  on  the  statute  books 
in  1916,  and  shall  not  attempt  to  detail  all  the  provisions  of 
them,  but  shall  consider  only  the  means  by  which  they  propose 
to  attain  a  eugenic  end. 

The  state  of  Indiana  allows  the  sterilization  of  all  inmates  of 
state  institutions,  deemed  by  a  commission  of  three  surgeons  to 
be  unimprovable  physically  or  mentally,  and  unfit  for  procrea- 
tion. The  object  is  purely  eugenic.  After  a  few  hundred  opera- 
tions had  been  performed  in  JeflFersonville  reformatory,  the  law 
aroused  the  hostility  of  Governor  Thomas  R.  Marshall,  who 
succeeded  in  preventing  its  enforcement;  since  1913  we  believe 
it  has  not  been  in  effect.    It  is  defectively  drawn  in  some  ways, 


^ 


192  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

particularly  because  it  includes  those  who  will  be  kept  in  custody 
for  life,  and  who  are  therefore  not  proper  objects  of  sterilization. 

The  Washington  law  applies  to  habitual  criminals  and  sex 
offenders;  it  is  a  punitive  measure  which  may  be  ordered  by  the 
court  passing  sentence  on  the  offender,  but  has  never  been  put 
in  force.  Sterilization  is  not  a  suitable  method  of  punishment, 
and  its  value  as  a  eugenic  instrument  is  jeopardized  by  the 
interjection  of  the  punitive  motive. 

California  applied  her  law  to  all  inmates  (not  voluntary)  of 
state  hospitals  for  the  insane  and  the  state  home  for  the  feeble- 
minded, and  all  recidivists  in  the  state  prisons.  The  motive  is 
partly  eugenic,  partly  therapeutic,  partly  punitive.  It  is  re- 
ported ^  that  635  operations  have  been  performed  under  this 
law,  which  is  administered  by  the  state  commission  for  the 
insane,  the  resident  physician  of  any  state  prison,  and  the 
medical  superintendent  of  any  state  institution  for  "fools  and 
idiots."  For  several  years  California  had  the  distinction  of 
being  the  only  state  where  sterilization  was  actually  being  per- 
formed in  accordance  with  the  law.  The  California  measure 
applies  to  those  serving  life  sentences — an  unnecessary  applica- 
tion. Although  falling  short  of  an  ideal  measure  in  some  other 
particulars,  it  seems  on  the  whole  to  be  satisfactorily  adminis- 
tered. 

Connecticut's  law  provides  that  all  inmates  of  state  prisons 
and  of  the  state  hospitals  at  Middletowm  and  Normch  may  be 
sterilized  if  such  action  is  recommended  by  a  board  of  three 
surgeons,  on  eugenic  or  therapeutic  grounds.  It  has  been  ap- 
plied to  a  few  insane  persons  (21,  up  to  September,  1916). 

Nevada  has  a  purely  punitive  sterilization  law  applying  to 
habitual  criminals  and  sex  ofiFenders.  The  courts,  which  are 
authorized  to  apply  it,  have  never  done  so. 

Iowa's  comprehensive  statute  applies  to  inmates  of  public 
institutions  for   criminals,  rapists,  idiots,   feeble-minded,   im- 

'  "  Report  of  the  Committee  on  the  Sterilization  of  Criminals,"  Journal  of  the 
Institute  of  Criminal  Law  and  Criminology,  September,  19 1 6.  Of  the  operations 
mentioned,  634  are  said  to  have  been  performed  on  insane  persons  and  one  on  a 
criminal. 


FEEBLE-MINDED  MEN  ARE  CAPABLE  OF  MUCH  ROUGH  LABOR 
Fig.  30. — Most  of  the  cost  of  segregating  the  mentally  defective  can  be  met  by 
properly  organizing  their  labor,  so  as  to  make  them  as  nearly  self-supporting  as  possi- 
ble. It  has  been  found  that  they  jierform  excellently  such  work  as  clearing  forest 
land,  or  reforesting  cleared  land,  and  great  gangs  of  them  might  profitably  be  put 
at  such  work,  in  most  states.    Photograph  from  the  Training  School,  Vineland,  N.  J. 


FEEBLE-MINDED  AT  A  VINELAND  COLONY 
Fig.  31. — ^They  have  the  bodies  of  adults  but  the  minds  of  children.    It  is  not  to 
the  interest  of  the  state  that  they  should  be  allowed  to  mingle  with  the  normal  pop- 
ulation; and  it  is  quite  as  little  to  their  own  interest,  for  they  are  not  capable  of 
competing  successfully  with  people  who  are  normal  mentally. 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  193 

beciles,  lunatics,  drug  fiends,  epileptics,  syphilitics,  moral  and 
sexual  perverts  and  diseased  and  degenerate  persons.  It  is 
compulsory  in  case  of  persons  twice  convicted  of  felony  or  of  a 
sexual  offense  other  than  "white  slavery,"  in  which  offense  one 
conviction  makes  sterilization  mandatory.  The  state  parole 
board,  with  the  managing  officer  and  physician  of  each  institu- 
tion, constitute  the  executive  authorities.  The  act  has  many 
objectionable  features,  one  of  the  most  striking  of  which  is  the 
inclusion  of  syphilitics  under  the  head  of  persons  whom  it  is 
proposed  to  sterilize.  As  syphilis  is  a  curable  disease,  there  is 
scarcely  more  reason  for  sterilizing  those  afflicted  with  it  than 
there  is  for  sterilizing  persons  with  measles.  It  is  true  that  the 
sterilization  of  a  large  number  of  syphilitics  might  have  a  eugenic 
effect,  if  the  cured  syphilitics  had  a  permanently  impaired  germ- 
plasm — a  proposition  which  is  very  doubtful.  But  the  framers 
of  the  law  apparently  were  not  influenced  by  that  aspect  of  the 
case,  and  in  any  event  such  a  method  of  procedure  is  too  round- 
about to  be  commendable.  Criminals  as  such,  and  syphilitics, 
should  certainly  be  removed  from  the  workings  of  this  law,  and 
dealt  with  in  some  other  way.  However,  no  operations  are  re- 
ported as  having  been  performed  under  the  act. 

New  Jersey's  law,  which  has  never  been  operative,  represents  a 
much  more  advanced  statute;  it  applies  to  inmates  of  state 
reformatories,  charitable  and  penal  institutions  (rapists  and 
confirmed  criminals)  and  provides  for  a  board  of  expert  exam- 
iners, as  well  as  for  legal  procedure. 

New  York's  law,  applying  to  inmates  of  state  hospitals  for 
the  insane,  state  prisons,  reformatories  and  charitable  institu- 
tions, is  also  fairly  well  drawn,  providing  for  a  board  of  exam- 
iners, and  surrounding  the  operation  with  legal  safeguards.  No 
operations  have  been  performed  under  it. 

North  Dakota  includes  inmates  of  state  prisons,  reform  school, 
school  for  feeble-minded  and  asylum  for  the  insane  in  its  law, 
which  is  administered  by  a  special  board.  Although  an  emer- 
gency clause  was  tacked  on,  when  it  was  passed  in  19 13,  put- 
ting it  into  effect  at  once,  no  operations  have  been  performed 
under  it. 


194  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Michigan's  law  applies  to  all  inmates  of  state  institutions 
maintained  wholly  or  in  part  at  public  expense.  It  lacks  many 
of  the  provisions  of  an  ideal  law,  but  is  being  applied  to  some  of 
the  feeble-minded. 

The  Kansas  law,  which  provides  suitable  court  procedure, 
embraces  inmates  of  all  state  institutions  intrusted  with  the 
care  or  custody  of  habitual  criminals,  idiots,  epileptics,  imbeciles 
or  insane,  an  "habitual  criminal"  being  defined  as  "a  person 
who  has  been  convicted  of  some  felony  involving  moral  turpi- 
tude." It  has  been  a  dead  letter  ever  since  it  was  placed  on  the 
statute  books. 

Wisconsin  ^  provides  for  a  special  board  to  consider  the  cases  of 
"all  inmates  of  state  and  county  institutions  for  criminal, 
insane,  feeble-minded  and  epileptic  persons,"  prior  to  their 
release.  The  law  has  some  good  features,  and  has  been  applied 
to  a  hundred  or  more  feeble-minded  persons. 

In  191 1  the  American  Breeders'  Association  appointed  a 
"Committee  to  Study  and  Report  on  the  Best  Practical  Means 
of  Cutting  Off  the  Defective  Germ-Plasm  in  the  American 
Population,"  and  this  committee  has  been  at  work  ever  since, 
under  auspices  of  the  Eugenics  Record  Office,  making  a  par- 
ticular study  of  legal  sterilization.  It  points  out  -  that  a  steriliza- 
tion law,  to  be  of  the  greatest  possible  value,  must: 

(i)  Consider  sterilization  as  a  eugenic  measure,  not  as  a 
punitive  or  even  therapeutic  one. 

(2)  Provide  due  process  of  law,  before  any  operation  is  car- 
ried out. 

(3)  Provide  adequate  and  competent  executive  agents. 

(4)  Designate  only  proper  classes  of  persons  as  subject  to  the 
law. 

(5)  Provide  for  the  nomination  of  individuals  for  sterilization, 
by  suitable  procedure. 

(6)  Make  an  adequate  investigation  of  each  case,  the  family 

^  Guyer,  M.  F.,  Wisconsin  Eugenics  Legislation.  Trans.  Amer.  Asso.  Study 
and  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality,  19 17,  pp.  92-97. 

''  Eugenics  Record  Office,  Bulletin  No.  10  A,  The  Scope  of  the  Committee's  Work, 
Cold  Spring  Harbor,  L.  I.,  Feb.,  1914;  No.  10  B,  The  Legal,  Legislative  and  Adminis- 
trative Aspects  of  Sterilization,  same  date. 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  195 

history  being  the  most  important  part,  and  one  which  is  often 
neglected  at  present. 

(7)  Have  express  and  adequate  criteria  for  determining  upon 
sterilization. 

(8)  Designate  the  type  of  operation  authorized. 

(9)  Make  each  distinct  step  mandatory  and  fix  definitely  the 
responsibility  for  it. 

(10)  Make   adequate   appropriation   for   carrying   out   the 
measure. 

Tested  by  such  standards,  there  is  not  a  sterilization  law  in 
existence  in  the  United  States  at  the  time  this  is  written  that 
is  wholly  commendable;  and  those  introduced  in  various  states 
during  the  last  few  years,  but  not  passed,  show  few  signs  of 
improvement.  It  is  evident  that  the  commendable  zeal  has 
not  had  adequate  guidance,  in  the  drafting  of  sterilization 
legislation.  The  committee  above  referred  to  has  drawn  up  a 
model  law,  and  states  which  wish  to  adopt  a  program  of  legisla- 
tive sterilization  should  pass  a  measure  embodying  at  least  the 
principles  of  this  model  law.  But,  as  we  have  pointed  out, 
wholesale  sterilization  is  an  unsatisfactory  substitute  for  segre- 
gation. There  are  cases  where  it  is  advisable,  in  states  too 
or  niggardly  to  care  adequately  for  their  defectives  and  delin 
quents,  but  eugenists  should  favor  segregation  as  the  main 
icy,  with  steriUzation  for  the  special  cases  as  previously 
cated. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  attempts  have  recently  beeri 
made  to  restrict  the  reproduction  of  anti-social  persons 
putting  restrictions  on  marriage.  This  form  of  campaign,  al- 
though usually  calling  itself  eugenic,  has  been  due  far  less  to 
eugenists  than  to  sex  hygienists  who  have  chosen  to  sail  under  a 
borrowed  flag.  Every  eugenist  must  wish  them  success  in  their 
efforts  to  promote  sex  hygiene,  but  it  is  a  matter  of  regret  that 
they  can  not  place  their  efforts  in  the  proper  hght,  for  their 
masquerade  as  a  eugenic  propaganda  has  brought  undeserved 
reproach  on  the  eugenics  movement. 

The  customary  form  of  legal  action  in  this  case  is  to  demand 
that  both  applicants  for  a  marriage  license,  or  in  some  cases  only 


196  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

the  male,  sign  an  affidavit  or  present  a  certificate  from  some 
medical  authority  stating  that  an  examination  has  been  made 
and  the  applicant  found  to  be  free  from  any  venereal  disease. 
In  some  cases  other  diseases  or  mental  defects  are  included. 
When  the  law  prevents  marriage  on  account  of  insanity,  feeble- 
mindedness, or  other  hereditary  defect,  it  obviously  has  a  eu- 
genic value;  but  in  so  far  as  it  concerns  itself  with  venereal  dis- 
eases, which  are  not  hereditary,  it  is  only  of  indirect  interest  to 
eugenics.  The  great  objection  to  such  laws  is  that  they  are  too 
easily  evaded  by  the  persons  whom  they  are  intended  to  reach — 
a  fact  that  has  been  demonstrated  conclusively  wherever  they 
have  been  put  in  force.  Furthermore,  the  nature  of  the  exami- 
nation demanded  is  usually  wholly  inadequate  to  ascertain 
whether  the  applicant  really  is  or  is  not  afflicted  with  a  venereal 
disease.  Finally,  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  denial  of  a 
marriage  license  will  by  no  means  prevent  reproduction,  among 
the  anti-social  classes  of  the  community. 

For  these  reasons,  the  so-called  eugenic  laws  of  several  states, 
which  provide  for  a  certificate  of  health  before  a  marriage  li- 
cense is  issued,  are  not  adequate  eugenic  measures.  They  have 
some  value  in  awakening  public  sentiment  to  the  value  of  a  clean 
record  in  a  prospective  life  partner.  To  the  extent  that  they  are 
enforced,  the  probability  that  persons  afflicted  with  venereal 
disease  are  on  the  average  eugenically  inferior  to  the  unaffected 
gives  these  laws  some  eugenic  effect.  We  are  not  called  on  to 
discuss  them  from  a  hygienic  point  of  view;  but  we  believe  that 
it  is  a  mistake  for  eugenists  to  let  legislation  of  this  sort  be  any- 
thing but  a  minor  achievement,  to  be  followed  up  by  more  effi- 
cient legislation. 

Laws  which  tend  to  surround  marriage  with  a  reasonable 
amount  of  formality  and  publicity  are,  in  general,  desirable 
eugenically.  They  tend  to  discourage  hasty  and  secret  mar- 
riages, and  to  make  matrimony  appear  as  a  matter  in  which 
the  public  has  a  legitimate  interest,  and  which  is  not  to  be 
undertaken  lightly  and  without  consideration.  Laws  compell- 
ing the  young  to  get  the  consent  of  their  parents  before  marriage 
are  to  be  placed  in  this  category;  and  likewise  the  German  law 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  197 

which  requires  the  presentation  of  birth-certificates  before  a 
marriage  Ucense  is  issued. 

A  revival  under j)roper  form  of  the  old  custom  of  publishing 
the  banns  is  desirable.  Undoubtedly  many  hasty  and  ill-con- 
sidered marriages  are  contracted  at  the  present  time,  with 
dysgenic  results,  which  could  be  prevented  if  the  relatives  and 
friends  of  the  contracting  parties  knew  what  was  going  on,  and 
could  bring  to  light  defects  or  objections  unknown  or  not  prop- 
erly realized  by  the  young  people.  Among  other  states,  Missouri 
has  recently  considered  such  a  law,  proposing  that  each  appli- 
cant for  a  marriage  license  be  required  to  present  a  certificate 
from  a  reputable  physician,  stating  in  concise  terms  the  appli- 
cant's health  and  his  fitness  to  marry.  Notice  of  application  for 
a  marriage  license  shall  be  published  in  a  daily  paper  three  con- 
secutive times,  at  the  expense  of  the  county.  If  at  the  expira- 
tion of  one  day  from  the  publication  of  the  last  notice,  no  charges 
have  been  filed  with  the  recorder  alleging  the  applicants'  un- 
fitness to  marry,  license  shall  be  granted.  If  objection  be  made 
by  three  persons  not  related  in  blood  to  each  other,  on  the  ground 
of  any  item  mentioned  in  the  physician's  certificate,  the  case 
shall  be  taken  before  the  circuit  court;  if  the  court  sustains  the 
objection  of  these  three  unrelated  persons,  a  license  to  wed  shall 
be  denied;  if  the  court  overrules  the  objection,  the  license  shall 
be  granted  and  court  costs  charged  to  the  objectors. 

Although  interesting  as  showing  the  drift  of  public  sentiment 
toward  a  revival  of  the  banns,  this  proposed  law  is  poorly  drawn. 
Three  unrelated  la)anen  and  the  judge  of  a  circuit  court  are  not 
the  proper  persons  to  decide  on  the  biological  fitness  of  a  pro- 
posed marriage.  We  believe  the  interests  of  eugenics  would 
be  sufficiently  met  at  this  time  by  a  law  which  provided  that 
adequate  notice  of  application  for  marriage  license  should  be 
published,  and  no  license  granted  (except  under  exceptional  cir- 
cumstances) until  the  expiration  of  two  weeks  from  the  publica- 
tion of  the  notice.  This  would  give  families  and  friends  time  to 
act;  but  it  is  probably  not  practicable  to  forbid  the  issuance  of  a 
license  at  the  expiration  of  the  designated  time,  unless  evidence 
is  brought  forward  showing  that  one  of  the  applicants  is  not 


igS  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

legally  capable  of  contracting  marriage  because  of  a  previous 
mate  still  living  and  undivorced,  or  because  of  insanity,  feeble- 
mindedness, under  age,  etc.  Such  a  law,  we  believe,  could  be 
put  on  the  statute  books  of  any  state,  and  enforced,  without 
arousing  prejudices  or  running  counter  to  pubhc  sentiment; 
and  its  eugenic  value,  if  small,  would  certainly  be  real. 

This  exhausts  the  list  of  suggested  coercive  means  of  re- 
stricting the  reproduction  of  the  inferior.  What  we  propose  is, 
we  believe,  a  very  modest  program,  and  one  which  can  be  carried 
out,  as  soon  as  public  opinion  is  educated  on  the  subject,  with- 
out any  great  sociological,  legal  or  financial  hindrances.  We 
suggest  nothing  more  than  that  individuals  whose  offspring 
would  almost  certainly  be  subversive  of  the  general  welfare, 
be  prevented  from  having  any  offspring.  In  most  cases,  such 
individuals  are,  or  should  be,  given  life-long  institutional  care 
for  their  own  benefit,  and  it  is  an  easy  matter,  by  segregation 
of  the  sexes,  to  prevent  reproduction.  In  a  few  cases,  it  will 
probably  be  found  desirable  to  sterilize  the  individual  by  a 
surgical  operation. 

Such  coercive  restriction  does,  in  some  cases,  sacrifice  what 
may  be  considered  personal  rights.  In  such  instances,  personal 
rights  must  give  way  before  the  immensely  greater  interests  of 
the  race.  But  there  is  a  much  larger  class  of  cases,  where  coer- 
cion can  not  be  approved,  and  yet  where  an  enlightened  con- 
science, or  the  subtle  force  of  public  opinion,  may  well  bring 
about  some  measure  of  restraint  on  reproduction.  This  class 
includes  many  individuals  who  are  not  in  any  direct  way  det- 
rimental to  society;  and  who  yet  have  some  inherited  taint  or 
defect  that  should  be  checked,  and  of  which  they,  if  enlightened, 
would  probably  be  the  first  to  desire  the  elimination.  The 
number  of  high-minded  persons  who  deliberately  refrain  from 
marriage,  or  parenthood,  in  the  interests  of  posterity,  is  greater 
than  any  one  imagines,  except  a  eugenist  brought  into  intimate 
relations  with  people  who  take  an  intelligent  interest  in  the 
subject. 

X.  comes,  let  us  say,  from  a  family  in  which  there  is  a  per- 
sistent taint  of  epilepsy,  or  insanity.    X.  is  a  normal,  useful. 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  199 

conscientious  member  of  society.  To  talk  of  segregating  such  an 
individual  would  be  rash.  But  X.  has  given  some  thought  to 
heredity  and  eugenics,  and  decides  that  he,  or  she,  will  refrain 
from  marriage,  in  order  to  avoid  transmitting  the  family  taint 
to  another  generation.  Here  we  have,  in  effect,  a  non-coercive 
restriction  of  reproduction.  What  shall  we  say  of  the  action  of 
X.  in  remaining  celibate, — is  it  wise  or  unwise?  To  be  en- 
couraged or  condemned? 

It  is  perhaps  the  most  delicate  problem  which  applied  eu- 
genics offers.  It  is  a  peculiarly  personal  one,  and  the  outsider 
who  advises  in  such  a  case  is  assuming  a  heavy  responsibility, 
not  only  in  regard  to  the  future  welfare  of  the  race,  but  to  the 
individual  happiness  of  X.  We  can  not  accept  the  sweeping 
generalization  sometimes  made  that  "Strength  should  marry 
weakness  and  weakness  marry  strength."  No  more  can  we  hold 
fast  to  the  ideal,  which  we  believe  to  be  Utopian,  that  "Strength 
should  only  marry  strength."  There  are  cases  where  such  glit- 
tering generalities  are  futile;  where  the  race  and  the  individual 
would  both  be  gainers  by  a  marriage  which  produced  children 
that  had  the  family  taint,  but  either  latent  or  not  to  a  degree 
serious  enough  to  counteract  their  value.  The  individual  must 
decide  for  himself  with  especial  reference  to  the  trait  in  question 
and  his  other  compensating  qualities;  but  he  should  at  least 
have  the  benefit  of  whatever  light  genetics  can  offer  him,  before 
he  makes  his  decision. 

For  the  sake  of  a  concrete  example,  let  us  suppose  that  a  man, 
in  whose  ancestry  tuberculosis  has  appeared  for  several  genera- 
tions, is  contemplating  marriage.  The  first  thing  to  be  re- 
membered is  that  if  he  marries  a  woman  with  a  similar  family 
history,  their  children  will  have  a  double  inheritance  of  the  taint, 
and  are  almost  certain  to  be  affected  unless  living  in  an  espe- 
cially favorable  region.  It  would  in  most  cases  be  best  that  no 
children  result  from  such  a  marriage. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  man  may  marry  a  woman  in  whose 
family  consumption  is  unknown.  The  chance  of  their  children 
being  tuberculous  will  not  be  great;  nevertheless  the  taint,  the 
diathesis,  will  be  passed  on  just  the  same,  although  concealed, 


200  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

possibly  to  appear  at  some  future  time.  Such  a  marriage  is  in 
some  ways  more  dangerous  to  the  race,  in  the  long  run,  than  that 
of  "weakness  with  weakness."  Yet  society  at  present  certainly 
has  no  safe  grounds  for  interferehce,  if  such  a  marriage  is  made. 
If  the  two  persons  come  of  superior  stock,  it  seems  probable 
that  the  gain  will  outweigh  the  loss.  In  any  event,  it  is  at  least 
to  be  expected  that  both  man  and  woman  would  have  a  deliber- 
ate consciousness  of  what  they  are  doing,  and  that  no  person 
with  any  honor  would  enter  into  a  marriage,  concealing  a  defect 
in  his  or  her  ancestry.  Love  is  usually  blind  enough  to  overlook 
such  a  thing,  but  if  it  chooses  not  to,  it  ought  not  to  be  blind- 
folded. 

In  short,  the  mating  of  strength  with  strength  is  certainly  the 
ideal  which  society  should  have  and  which  every  individual 
should  have.  But  human  heredity  is  so  mixed  that  this  ideal  is 
not  always  practicable;  and  if  any  two  persons  wish  to  abandon 
it,  society  is  hardly  justified  in  interfering,  unless  the  case  be  so 
gross  as  those  which  we  were  discussing  in  the  first  part  of  this 
chapter.  Progress  in  this  direction  is  to  be  expected  mainly 
from  the  enlightened  action  of  the  individual.  Much  more 
progress  in  the  study  of  heredity  must  be  made  before  advice  on 
marriage  matings  can  be  given  in  any  except  fairly  obvious  cases. 
The  most  that  can  now  be  done  is  to  urge  that  a  full  knowledge  of 
the  family  history  of  an  intended  life  partner  be  sought,  to 
encourage  the  discreet  inquiries  and  subtle  guidance  of  parents, 
and  to  appeal  to  the  eugenic  conscience  of  a  young  man  or 
woman.  In  case  of  doubt  the  advice  of  a  competent  biologist 
should  be  taken.  There  is  a  real  danger  that  high-minded  people 
may  allow  some  minor  physical  defect  to  outweigh  a  greater 
mental  excellence. 

There  remains  one  other  non-coercive  method  of  influencing 
the  distribution  of  marriage,  which  deserves  consideration  in  this 
connection. 

We  have  said  that  society  can  not  well  put  many  restrictions 
on  marriage  at  the  present  time.  We  urge  by  every  means  at  our 
command  that  marriage  be  looked  upon  more  seriously,  that  it 
be  undertaken  with  more  deliberation  and  consideration.    We 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  20T 

consider  it  a  crime  for  people  to  marry,  without  knowing  each 
other's  family  histories.  But  in  spite  of  all  this,  ill-assorted, 
dysgenic  marriages  will  still  be  made.  When  such  a  marriage 
is  later  demonstrated  to  have  been  a  mistake,  not  only  from  an 
individual,  but  also  from  a  eugenic  point  of  view,  society  should 
be  ready  to  dissolve  the  union.  Divorce  is  far  preferable  to 
mere  separation,  since  the  unoffending  party  should  not  be 
denied  the  privilege  of  remarriage,  as  the  race  in  most  cases 
needs  his  or  her  contribution  to  the  next  generation.  In  extreme 
cases,  it  would  be  proper  for  society  to  take  adequate  steps  to 
insure  that  the  dysgenic  party  could  neither  remarry  nor  have 
offspring  outside  marriage.  The  time-honored  justifiable 
grounds  for  divorce, — adultery,  sterility,  impotence,  venereal 
infection,"  desertion,  non-support,  habitual  cruelty, — appear  to 
us  to  be  no  more  worthy  of  legal  recognition  than  the  more 
purely  dysgenic  grounds  of  chronic  inebriety,  feeble-mindedness, 
epilepsy,  insanity  or  any  other  serious  inheritable  physical, 
mental  or  moral  defect. 

This  view  of  the  eugenic  value  of  divorce  should  not  be  con-  1^ 
strued  as  a  plea  for  the  admission  of  mutual  consent  as  a  ground 
for  divorce.  It  is  desirable,  however,  to  realize  that  mismating 
is  the  real  evil.  Divorce  in  such  cases  is  merely  a  cure  for  an 
improper  condition.  Social  condemnation  should  stigmatize 
the  wrong  of  mismating,  not  the  undoing  of  such  a  wrong. 

Restrictions  on  age  at  marriage  are  almost  universal.  The 
object  is  to  prevent  too  early  marriages.  The  objections  which 
are  commonly  urged  against  early  marriage  (in  so  far  as  they 
bear  upon  eugenics)  are  the  following: 

1.  That  it  results  in  inferior  offspring.  This  objection  is  not 
well  supported  except  possibly  in  the  most  extreme  cases. 
Physically,  there  is  evidence  that  the  younger  parents  on  the 
whole  bear  the  sounder  children. 

2.  That  a  postponement  of  marriage  provides  the  opportunity 
for  better  sexual  selection.  This  is  a  valid  ground  for  discourag- 
ing the  marriage  of  minors. 

3.  The  better  educated  classes  are  obliged  to  marry  late, 
because  a  man  usually  can  not  marry  until  he  has  finished  his 


y 


202  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

education  and  established  himself  in  business.    A  fair  amount 

of  restriction  as  to  age  at  marriage  will  therefore  not  affect  these 

classes,  but  may  affect  the  uneducated  classes.     In  so  far  as 

lack  of  education  is  correlated  with  eugenic  inferiority,  some 

restriction  of  this  sort  is  desirable,  because  it  will  keep  inferiors 

from  reproducing  too  rapidly,  as  compared  with  the  superior  ,^^ 

elements  of  the  population. 

While  the  widespread  rule  that  men  should  not  marry  under  21/-^ 
and  women  under  18  has  some  justification,  then,  an  ideal  law 
would  permit  exceptions  where  there  was  adequate  income  and 
good  mating. 

^Laws  to  prohibit  or  restrict  consanguineous  marriages  fall 
within  the  scope  of  this  chapter,  in  so  far  as  they  are  not  based 
on  dogma  alone,  since  their  aim  is  popularly  supposed  to  be  to 
prevent  marriages  that  will  result  in  undesirable  offspring. 
Examining  the  laws  of  all  the  United  States,  C.  B.  Davenport  ^ 
found  the  following  classes  excluded  from  marriage: 

1.  Sibs  (i.  e.,  full  brothers  and  sisters)  in  all  states,  and  half 
sibs  in  most  states. 

2.  Parent  and  child  in  all  states,  and  parent  and  grandchild  in 
all  states  except  Pennsylvania. 

3.  Child  and  parent's  sibs  (i.  e.,  niece  and  uncle,  nephew  and 
aunt).    Prohibited  in  all  but  four  states. 

4.  First  cousins.  Marriages  of  this  type  are  prohibited  in 
over  a  third  of  the  states,  and  tacitly  or  specifically  permitted  in 
the  others. 

5.  Other  blood  relatives  are  occasionally  prohibited  from 
marrying.  Thus,  second  cousins  in  Oklahoma  and  a  child  and 
his  or  her  parent's  half  sibs  in  Alabama,  Minnesota,  New  Jersey, 
Texas,  and  other  states. 

In  the  closest  of  blood-relationships  the  well-nigh  universal 
restrictions  should  be  retained.  But  when  marriage  between 
cousins — the  commonest  form  of  consanguineous  marriage — is 
examined,  it  is  found  to  result  frequently  well,  sometimes  ill. 
There  is  a  widespread  belief  that  such  marriages  are  dangerous, 

^  Eugenics  Record  OflSce  Bulletin  No.  9:  Slate  Laws  Limiting  Marriage  Selection 
Examined  in  the  Light  of  Eugenics.    Cold  Spring  Harbor,  L.  I.,  June,  1913. 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  203 

and  in  support  of  this  idea,  one  is  referred  to  the  histories  of 
various  isolated  communities  where  consanguineous  marriage  is 
alleged  to  have  led  to  "an  appalling  amount  of  defect  and 
degeneracy."  Without  questioning  the  facts,  one  may  question 
the  interpretation  of  the  facts,  and  it  seems  to  us  that  a  wrong 
interpretation  of  these  stories  is  partly  responsible  for  the  wide- 
spread condemnation  of  cousin  marriage  at  the  present  time. 

The  Bahama  Islands  furnish  one  of  the  stock  examples. 
Clement  A.  Penrose  writes  ^  of  them:  --^p 

"In  some  of  the  white  colonies  where  black  blood  has  been 
excluded,  and  where,  owing  to  their  isolated  positions,  frequent 
intermarriage  has  taken  place,  as  for  instance  at  Spanish  Wells, 
and  Hopetown,  much  degeneracy  is  present,  manifested  by 
many  abnormalities  of  mind  and  body.  ...  I  am  strongly  of 
the  opinion  that  the  deplorable  state  of  degeneracy  which  we  ob- 
served at  Hopetown  has  been  in  a  great  measure,  if  not  entirely, 
brought  about  by  too  close  intermarrying  of  the  inhabitants." 

To  demonstrate  his  point,  he  took  the  pains  to  compile  a 
family  tree  of  the  most  degenerate  strains  at  Hopetown.  There 
are  fifty-five  marriages  represented,  and  the  chart  is  overlaid 
with  twenty-three  red  lines,  each  of  which  is  said  to  represent  an 
intermarriage.  This  looks  like  a  good  deal  of  consanguineous 
mating;  but  to  test  the  matter  a  little  farther  the  fraternity  at 
the  bottom  of  the  chart, — eight  children,  of  whom  five  were 
idiots, — ^was  traced.  In  the  second  generation  it  ran  to  another 
island,  and  when  the  data  gave  out,  at  the  fourth  generation, 
there  was  not  a  single  case  of  consanguineous  marriage  involved. 

Another  fraternity  was  then  picked  out  consisting  of  two 
men,  both  idiots  and  congenitally  blind,  and  a  woman  who  had 
married  and  given  birth  to  ten  normal  children.  In  the  fourth 
generation  this  pedigree,  which  was  far  from  complete,  went  out 
of  the  islands;  so  far  as  the  data  showed  there  was  not  a  single 
case  of  consanguineous  marriage.  There  was  one  case  where  a 
name  was  repeated,  but  the  author  had  failed  to  mark  this  as  a 
case  of  intermarriage,  if  it  really  was  such.     It  is  difficult  to 

*  Penrose,  Clement  A.,  Sanitary  Conditions  in  the  Bahama  Islands,  Geographical 
Society  of  Baltimore,  1905. 


264  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

share  the  conviction  of  Dr.  Penrose,  that  the  two  pedigrees  in- 
vestigated, offer  an  example  of  the  nefarious  workings  of  inter- 
marriage. 

Finally  a  fraternity  was  traced  to  which  the  author  had  called 
particular  attention  because  three  of  its  eleven  members  were 
bom  blind.  The  defect  was  described  as  "optic  atrophy  asso- 
ciated with  a  pigmentary  retinitis  and  choryditis"  and  "this 
condition,"  Dr.  Penrose  averred,  "is  one  stated  by  the  au- 
thorities to  be  due  to  the  effects  of  consanguineous  marriage." 

Fortunately,  the  pedigree  was  fairly  full  and  several  Unes  of  it 
could  be  carried  through  the  sixth  generation.  There  was,  in- 
deed, a  considerable  amount  of  consanguineous  marriage  in- 
volved. When  the  amount  of  inbreeding  represented  by  these 
blind  boys  was  measured,  it  proved  to  be  almost  identical  with 
the  amount  represented  by  the  present  Kaiser  of  Germany.^ 

We  are  unable  to  see  in  such  a  history  as  that  of  Hopetown, 
Bahama  Islands,  any  evidence  that  consanguineous  marriage 
necessarily  results  in  degeneracy.  Dr.  Penrose  himself  points  to 
a  potent  factor  when  he  says  of  his  chart  in  another  connection: 
"It  will  be  noticed  that  only  a  few  of  the  descendants  of  Widow 
Malone  [the  first  settler  at  Hopetown]  are  indicated  as  having 
married.  By  this  it  is  not  meant  that  the  others  did  not  marry; 
many  of  them  did,  but  they  moved  away  and  settled  elsewhere, 
and  in  no  way  affected  the  future  history  of  the  settlement  of 
Hopetown." 

By  moving  away,  it  appears  to  us,  they  did  very  decidedly 
affect  the  future  history  of  Hopetown.  Who  are  the  emigrants? 
Might  they  not  have  been  the  more  enterprising  and  intelligent, 
the  physically  and  mentally  superior  of  the  population,  who  re- 
belled at  the  limited  opportunities  of  their  little  village,  and 
went  to  seek  a  fortune  in  some  broader  field?  Did  not  the  best 
go  in  general;  the  misfits,  the  defectives,  stay  behind  to  propa- 
gate? Emigration  in  such  a  c^se  would  have  the  same  effect  as 
war;  it  would  drain  off  the  best  stock  and  leave  the  weaklings  to 
stay  home  and  propagate  their  kind.    Under  such  conditions, 

*  See  von  Gruber  and  Rudin,  Forlpflanzung,  Vererbung,  Rassenhygiene,  p.  169, 
Mijnchen,  1911. 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  205 

defectives  would  be  bound  to  multiply,  regardless  of  whether  or 
not  the  marriages  are  consanguineous. 

"It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance,"  Dr.  Penrose  writes,  "that  early 
in  the  history  of  the  Malone  family  these  indications  of  degen- 
eracy were  absent;  but  they  began  in  the  fourth  generation  and 
rapidly  increased  afterward  imtil  they  culminated  by  the  presence 
of  five  idiots  in  one  family.  The  original  stock  was  apparently 
excellent,  but  the  present  state  of  the  descendants  is  deplorable." 

Now  three  generations  of  emigration  from  a  little  community, 
which  even  to-day  has  only  1,000  inhabitants,  would  naturally 
make  quite  a  difference  in  the  average  eugenic  quality  of  the 
population.  In  almost  any  population,  a  few  defectives  are 
constantly  being  produced.  Take  out  the  better  individuals, 
and  leave  these  defectives  to  multiply,  and  the  amount  of 
degeneracy  in  the  population  will  increase,  regardless  of  whether 
the  defectives  are  marrying  their  cousins,  or  unrelated  persons. 
The  family  of  five  idiots,  cited  by  Dr.  Penrose,  is  an  excellent 
illustration,  for  it  is  not  the  result  of  consanguineous  marriage — 
at  least,  not  in  a  close  enough  degree  to  have  appeared  on  the 
chart.  It  is  doubtless  a  mating  of  like  with  like;  and  biologically, 
consanguineous  marriage  is  nothing  more. 

Honesty  demands,  therefore,  that  consanguineous  marriage 
be  not  credited  with  results  for  which  the  consanguineous  ele- 
ment is  in  no  wise  responsible.  .  The  prevailing  habit  of  picking 
out  a  community  or  a  strain  where  consanguineous  marriage  and 
defects  are  associated  and  loudly  declaring  the  one  to  be  the 
cause  of  the  other,  is  evidence  of  the  lack  of  scientific  thought 
that  is  all  too  common. 

Most  of  the  studies  of  these  isolated  communities  where  in- 
termarriage has  taken  place,  illustrate  the  same  point.  C.  B. 
Davenport,  for  example,  quotes  ^  an  anonymous  correspondent 
from  the  island  of  Bermuda,  which  "shows  the  usual  conse- 
quence of  island  life."  He  writes:  "In  some  of  the  parishes 
(Somerset  and  Paget  chiefly)  there  has  been  much  intermar- 
riage, not  only  with  cousins  but  with  double  first  cousins  in 

'  Davenport,  Charles  B.,  Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics,  pp.  184  B.,  New  York, 
1911. 


2o6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

several  cases.  Intermarriage  has  chiefly  caused  weakness  of 
character  leading  to  drink,  not  lack  of  brains  or  a  certain  amount 
of  physical  strength,  but  a  very  inert  and  lazy  disposition." 

It  is  difiicult  to  believe  that  anyone  who  has  lived  in  the  trop- 
ics could  have  written  this  except  as  a  practical  joke.  Those 
who  have  resided  in  the  warmer  parts  of  the  world  know,  by 
observation  if  not  by  experience,  that  a  "weakness  of  character 
leading  to  drink"  and  "an  inert  and  lazy  disposition"  are  by 
no  means  the  prerogatives  of  the  inbred. 

If  one  is  going  to  credit  consanguineous  marriage  with  these 
evil  results,  what  can  one  say  when  evil  results  fail  to  follow? 

What  about  Smith's  Island,  off  the  coast  of  Maryland,  where 
all  the  inhabitants  are  said  to  be  interrelated,  and  where  a 
physician  who  lived  in  the  community  for  three  years  failed  to 
find  among  the  700  persons  a  single  case  of  idiocy,  insanity, 
epilepsy  or  congenital  deafness? 

What  about  the  community  of  Batz,  on  the  coast  of  France, 
where  Voisin  found  five  marriages  of  first  cousins  and  thirty- 
one  of  second  cousins,  without  a  single  case  of  mental  defect, 
congenital  deafness,  albinism,  retinitis  pigmentosa  or  malfor- 
mation? The  population  was  3,000,  all  of  whom  were  said  to  be 
interrelated. 

What  about  Cape  Cod,  whose  natives  are  known  throughout 
New  England  for  their  ability?  "  At  a  recent  visit  to  the  Congre- 
gational Sunday-School,"  says  a  student,  "I  noticed  all  officers, 
many  teachers,  organist,  ex-superintendent,  and  pastor's  wife 
all  Dyers.  A  lady  at  Truro  united  in  herseK  four  quarters  Dyer, 
father,  mother  and  both  grandmothers  Dyers." 

And  finally,  what  about  the  experience  of  livestock  breeders? 
Not  only  has  strict  brother  and  sister  mating — the  closest  in- 
breeding possible — ^been  carried  on  experimentally  for  twenty 
or  twenty-five  generations  without  bad  results;  but  the  history 
of  practically  every  fine  breed  shows  that  inbreeding  is  largely 
responsible  for  its  excellence. 

The  Ptolemies,  who  ruled  Egypt  for  several  centuries,  wanted 
to  keep  the  throne  in  the  family,  and  hence  practiced  a  system 
of  intermating  which  has  long  been  the  classical  evidence  that 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  207 

consanguineous  marriage  is  not  necessarily  followed  by  immedi- 
ate evil  effects.  The  following  fragment  of  the  genealogy  of  Cleo- 
patra VII  (mistress  of  Julius  Caesar  and  Marc  Antony)  is  con- 
densed from  Weigall's  Life  and  Times  of  Cleopatra  (1914)  and 

Ptolemy  I 

I 
Ptolemy  II 

I 

Ptolemy  III  m.  Berenice  II,  his  half-cousin. 

I 
Ptolemy  IV  m.  Arsinoe  III,  his  full  sister. 

I 
Ptolemy  V. 

I 
Ptolemy  VII  m.  Cleopatra  II,  his  fuU  sister. 

I 
Cleopatra  III  m.  Ptolemy  IX  (brother  of  VII),  her  vmcle. 

I 
Ptolemy  X.  m.  Cleopatra  IV,  his  full  sister. 


Berenice  II  m.  Ptolemy  XI  (brother  of  X),  her  uncle. 

I 
Ptolemy  XII,  d.  without  issue,  succeeded  by  his  uncle. 

Ptolemy  XIII. 

I 
Cleopatra  VII. 


shows  an  amount  of  continued  inbreeding  that  has  never  been 
surpassed  in  recorded  history,  and  yet  did  not  produce  any 
striking  evil  results.  The  ruler's  consort  is  named,  only  when 
the  two  were  related.  The  consanguineous  marriages  shown 
in  this  line  of  descent  are  by  no  means  the  only  ones  of  the  kind 
that  took  place  in  the  family,  many  like  them  being  found  in 
collateral  lines. 

It  is  certain  that  consanguineous  marriage,  being  the  mating 
pf  like  with  like,  intensifies  the  inheritance  of  the  offspring, 


2o8  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

which  gets  a  "  double  dose  "  of  any  trait  which  both  parents  have 
in  common.  If  the  traits  are  good,  it  will  be  an  advantage  to 
the  offspring  to  have  a  double  dose  of  them ;  if  the  traits  are  bad, 
it  will  be  a  disadvantage.  The  marriage  of  superior  kin  should 
produce  children  better  than  the  parents;  the  marriage  of  in- 
ferior kin  should  produce  children  even  worse  than  their  parents. 
I  In  passing  judgment  on  a  proposed  marriage,  therefore,  the 
/vital  question  is  not,  ''Are  they  related  by  blood?"  but  "Are 
/they  carriers  of  desirable  traits?" 

I  The  nature  of  the  traits  can  be  told  only  by  a  study  of  the 
ancestry.  Of  course,  characters  may  be  latent  or  recessive,  but 
this  is  also  the  case  in  the  population  at  large,  and  the  chance  of 
unpleasant  results  is  so  small,  when  no  instance  can  be  found  in 
the  ancestry,  that  it  can  be  disregarded.  If  the  same  congenital 
defect  or  undesirable  trait  does  not  appear  in  the  three  previous 
generations  of  two  cousins,  including  collaterals,  the  individuals 
need  not  be  discouraged  from  marrying  if  they  want  to. 

Laws  which  forbid  cousins  to  marry  are,  then,  on  an  unsound 
biological  basis.  As  Dr.  Davenport  remarks,  "The  marriage  of 
Charles  Darwin  and  Emma  Wedgewood  would  have  been  illegal 
and  void,  and  their  children  pronounced  illegitimate  in  Illinois, 
Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  New  Hampshire, 
Oklahoma,  Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  South  Dakota,  Utah,  Wash- 
ington, Wyoming,  and  other  states."  The  vitality  and  great 
capacity  of  their  seven  children  are  well  known.  A  law  which 
would  have  prevented  such  a  marriage  is  certainly  not 
eugenic. 

We  conclude,  then,  that  laws  forbidding  cousin  marriages  are 
not  desirable.  Since  it  would  be  well  to  make  an  effort  to  in- 
crease the  opportunities  for  further  play  of  sexual  selection,  the 
lack  of  which  is  sometimes  responsible  for  cousin  marriages, 
consanguineous  marriage  is  by  no  means  to  be  indiscriminately 
indorsed.  Still,  if  there  are  cases  where  it  is  eugenically  injurious, 
there  are  also  cases  where  its  results  are  eugenically  highly  bene- 
ficial, as  in  families  with  no  serious  defects  and  with  outstanding 
ability. 

The  laws  prohibiting  marriage  between  persons  having  no 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION  209 

blood  relationship  but  connected  by  marriage  should  all  be  re- 
pealed. The  best-known  English  instance,  which  was  eugenic- 
ally  very  objectionable, — the  prohibition  of  marriage  between 
a  man  and  his  deceased  wife's  sister, — has  fortunately  been 
extirpated,  but  laws  still  exist,  in  some  communities,  prohibiting 
marriage  between  a  man  and  his  stepchild  or  stepparent,  be- 
tween a  woman  and  her  deceased  husband's  brother,  and  be- 
tween the  second  husband  or  wife  of  a  deceased  aunt  or  uncle 
and  the  wife  or  husband  of  a  deceased  nephew  or  niece,  etc. 

The  only  other  problem  of  restrictive  eugenics  which  it  seems 
necessary  to  consider  is  that  offered  by  miscegenation.  This 
will  be  considered  in  Chapters  XIV  and  XV. 

To  sum  up:  we  believe  that  there  are  urgent  reasons  for  and 
no  objections  to  preventing  the  reproduction  of  a  number  of 
persons  in  the  United  States,  many  of  whom  have  already 
been  recognized  by  society  as  being  so  anti-social  or  inferior  as 
to  need  institutional  care.  Such  restriction  can  best  be  enforced 
by  effective  segregation  of  the  sexes,  although  there  are  cases 
where  individuals  might  well  be  released  and  allowed  full  free- 
dom, either  "on  parole,"  so  to  speak,  or  after  having  undergone 
a  surgical  operation  which  would  prevept  their  reproduction. 

Laws  providing  for  sterilization,  such  as  a  dozen  states  now 
possess,  are  not  framed  with  a  knowledge  of  the  needs  of  the 
case;  but  a  properly  drafted  sterilization  law  to  provide  for  cases 
not  better  treated  by  segregation  is  desirable.  Segregation 
should  be  considered  the  main  method. 

It  is  practicable  to  place  only  minor  restrictions  on  marriage, 
with  a  eugenic  goal  in  view.  A  good  banns  law,  however,  could 
meet  no  objections  and  would  yield  valuable  results.  Limited 
age  restrictions  are  proper. 

Marriages  of  individuals  whose  families  are  marked  by  minor 
taints  can  not  justify  social  interference;  but  an  enlightened 
conscience  and  a  eugenic  point  of  view  should  lead  every  in- 
dividual to  make  as  good  a  choice  as  possible. 

If  a  eugenically  bad  mating  has  been  made,  society  should 
minimize  as  far  as  possible  the  injurious  results,  by  means  of 
provision  for  properly  i;estricted  divorce. 


2IO  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Consanguineous  marriages  in  a  degree  no  closer  than  that  of 
first  cousins,  are  neither  to  be  condemned  nor  praised  indis- 
criminately. Their  desirability  depends  on  the  ancestry  of  the 
two  persons  involved;  each  case  should  therefore  be  treated  on 
its  own  merits. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION 

"Love  is  blind"  and  "Marriage  is  a  lottery,"  in  the  opinion  of 
proverbial  lore.  But  as  usual  the  proverbs  do  not  tell  the  whole 
truth.  Mating  is  not  wholly  a  matter  of  chance;  there  is  and 
always  has  been  a  considerable  amount  of  selection  involved. 
This  selection  must  of  course  be  with  respect  to  individual  traits, 
a  man  or  woman  being  for  this  purpose  merely  the  sum  of  his  or 
her  traits.  Reflection  will  show  that  with  respect  to  any  given 
trait  there  are  three  ways  of  mating:  random,  assortative  and 
preferential. 

I.  Random  mating  is  described  by  J.  Arthur  Harris  ^  as 
follows: 

"Suppose  a  most  highly  refined  socialistic  community  should 
set  about  to  equalize  as  nearly  as  possible  not  only  men's  labor 
and  their  recompense,  but  the  quality  of  their  wives.  It  would 
never  do  to  allow  individuals  to  select  their  own  partners — 
superior  cunning  might  result  in  some  having  mates  above  the 
average  desirability,  which  would  be  socially  unfair! 

"The  method  adopted  would  be  to  write  the  names  of  an 
equal  number  of  men  and  women  officially  condemned  to 
matrimony  on  cards,  and  to  place  those  for  men  in  one  lottery 
wheel  and  those  for  women  in  another.  The  drawing  of  a  pair  of 
cards,  one  from  each  wheel,  would  then  replace  the  'present 
wasteful  system'  of  'competitive'  courtship.  If  the  cards  were 
thoroughly  shuffied  and  the  drawings  perfectly  at  random,  we 
should  expect  only  chance  resemblances  between  husband  and 
wife  for  age,  stature,  eye  and  hair  color,  temper  and  so  on ;  in  the 
long  run,  a  wife  would  resemble  her  husband  no  more  than  the 

>  Harris,  J.  Arthur,  "Assortative  Mating  in  Man,"  Popular  Science  Monthly, 
LXXX,  pp.  476-493,  May,  191 2.  The  most  important  studies  on  the  subject  are 
cited  by  Dr.  Harris. 


212  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

husband  of  some  other  woman.  In  this  case,  the  mathematician 
can  give  us  a  coefficient  of  resemblance,  or  of  assortative  mating, 
which  we  wTite  as  zero.  The  other  extreme  would  be  the  state  of 
afifairs  in  which  men  of  a  certain  type  (that  is  to  say  men  differ- 
ing from  the  general  average  by  a  definite  amount)  always  chose 
wives  of  the  same  type;  the  resemblance  would  then  be  perfect 
and  the  correlation,  as  we  call  it,  would  be  expressed  by  a  coeffi- 
cient of  I." 

If  all  mating  were  at  random,  evolution  would  be  a  very  slow 
process.  But  actual  measurement  of  various  traits  in  conjugal 
pairs  shows  that  mating  is  very  rarely  random.  There  is  a 
conscious  or  unconscious  selection  for  certain  traits,  and  this 
selection  involves  other  traits  because  of  the  general  correlation 
of  traits  in  an  individual.  Random  mating,  therefore,  need  not 
be  taken  into  account  by  eugenists,  who  must  rather  give  their 
attention  to  one  of  the  two  forms  of  non-random  mating,  namely, 
assortative  and  preferential. 

2.  If  men  who  were  above  the  average  height  always  selected 
as  brides  women  who  were  equally  above  the  average  height 
and  short  men  selected  similarly,  the  coefficient  of  correlation 
between  height  in  husbands  and  wives  would  be  i,  and  there 
would  thus  be  perfect  assortative  mating.  If  only  one  half  of  the 
men  who  differed  from  the  average  height  always  married 
women  who  similarly  differed  and  the  other  half  married  at 
random,  there  would  be  assortative  mating  for  height,  but  it 
would  not  be  perfect:  the  coefficient  would  only  be  half  as  great 
as  in  the  first  case,  or  .5.  If  on  the  other  hand  (as  is  indeed  the 
popular  idea)  a  tall  man  tended  to  marry  a  woman  who  was 
shorter  than  the  average,  the  coefficient  of  correlation  would  be 
less  than  o;  it  would  have  some  negative  value. 

Actual  measurement  shows  that  a  man  who  exceeds  the 
average  height  by  a  given  amount  will  most  frequently  marry  a 
woman  who  exceeds  the  average  by  a  little  more  than  one- 
fourth  as  much  as  her  husband  does.  There  is  thus  assortative 
mating  for  height,  but  it  is  far  from  perfect.  The  actual  coeffi- 
cient given  by  Karl  Pearson  is  .28.  In  this  case,  then,  the  idea 
that  "unlikes  attract"  is  found  to  be  the  reverse  of  the  truth. 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION     213 

If  other  traits  are  measured,  assortative  mating  will  again  be 
found.  Whether  it  be  eye  color,  hair  color,  general  health, 
intelligence,  longevity,  insanity,  or  congenital  deafness,  exact 
measurements  show  that  a  man  and  his  wife,  though  not  re- 
lated by  blood,  actually  resemble  each  other  as  much  as  do 
uncle  and  niece,  or  first  cousins. 

In  some  cases  assortative  mating  is  conscious,  as  when  two 
congenitally  deaf  persons  are  drawn  together  by  their  conamon 
affliction  and  mutual  possession  of  the  sign  language.  But  in  the 
greater  munber  of  cases  it  is  wholly  unconscious.  Certainly  no 
one  would  suppose  that  a  man  selects  his  wife  deliberately  be- 
cause her  eye  color  matches  his  own;  much  less  would  he  select 
her  on  the  basis  of  resemblance  in  longevity,  which  can  not  be 
known  until  after  both  are  dead. 

Sigmund  Freud  and  Ernest  Jones  explain  such  selection  by  the 
supposition  that  a  man's  ideal  of  everything  that  is  lovely  in 
womankind  is  based  on  his  mother.  During  his  childhood,  her 
attributes  stamp  themselves  on  his  mind  as  being  the  perfect 
attributes  of  the  female  sex;  and  when  he  later  falls  in  love  it  is 
natural  that  the  woman  who  mosts  attracts  him  should  be  one 
who  resembles  his  mother.  But  as  he,  because  of  heredity, 
resembles  his  mother,  there  is  thus  a  resemblance  between  hus- 
band and  wife.  Cases  where  there  is  no  resemblance  would,  on 
this  hypothesis,  either  be  not  love  matches,  or  else  be  cases  where 
the  choice  was  made  by  the  woman,  not  the  man.  Proof  of  this 
hypothesis  has  not  yet  been  furnished,  but  it  may  very  well 
account  for  some  part  of  the  assortative  mating  which  is  so 
nearly  universal. 

The  eugenic  significance  of  assortative  mating  is  obvious. 
Marriage  of  representatives  of  two  long-lived  strains  ensures 
that  the  offspring  will  inherit  more  longevity  than  does  the 
ordinary  man.  Marriage  of  two  persons  from  gifted  families  will 
endow  the  children  with  more  than  the  ordinary  intellect.  On 
the  other  hand,  marriage  of  two  members  of  feeble-minded  strains 
(a  very  common  form  of  assortative  mating)  results  in  the 
production  of  a  new  lot  of  feeble-minded  children,  while  marriage 
contracted  between  families  marked  by  criminality  or  alcoholism 


214  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

means  the  perpetuation  of  such  traits  in  an  intensified  form. 
For  alcoholism,  Charles  Goring  found  the  resemblance  between 
husband  and  wife  in  the  following  classes  to  be  as  follows: 

Very  poor  and  destitute 44 

Prosperous  poor 58 

Well-to-do 69 

The  resemblance  of  husband  and  wife,  in  respect  of  possession 
of  a  police  record,  he  found  to  be  .20.  Of  course  alcoholism  and 
criminality  are  not  wholly  due  to  heredity;  the  resemblance 
between  man  and  wife  is  partly  a  matter  of  social  influences. 
But  in  any  case  the  existence  of  assortative  mating  for  such 
traits  is  significant. 

3.  Preferential  mating  occurs  when  certain  classes  of  women 
are  discriminated  against  by  the  average  man,  or  by  men  as  a 
class;  or  vice  versa.  It  is  the  form  of  sexual  selection  made 
prominent  by  Charles  Darwin,  who  brought  it  forw^ard  because 
natural  selection,  operating  solely  through  a  differential  death- 
rate,  seemed  inadequate  to  account  for  many  phases  of  evolution. 
By  sexual  selection  he  meant  that  an  individual  of  one  sex,  in 
choosing  a  mate,  is  led  to  select  out  of  several  competitors  the 
one  who  has  some  particular  attribute  in  a  high  degree.  The 
selection  may  be  conscious,  and  due  to  the  exercise  of  aesthetic 
taste,  or  it  may  be  unconscious,  due  to  the  greater  degree  of 
excitation  produced  by  the  higher  degree  of  some  attribute. 
However  the  selection  takes  place,  the  individual  so  selected  will 
have  an  opportunity  to  transmit  his  character,  in  the  higher 
degree  in  which  he  possesses  it,  to  his  descendants.  In  this  way 
it  was  supposed  by  Darwin  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
ornamental  characters  of  Uving  creatures  were  produced:  the 
tail  of  the  peacock,  the  mane  of  the  lion,  and  even  the  gorgeous 
coloring  of  many  insects  and  butterflies.  In  the  early  years  of 
Darwinism,  the  theory  of  sexual  selection  was  pushed  to  what 
now  seems  an  unjustifiable  extent.  Experiment  has  often  failed 
to  demonstrate  any  sexual  selection,  in  species  where  speculation 
supposed  it  to  exist.  And  even  if  sexual  selection,  conscious  or 
imconscious,  could  be  demonstrated  in  the  lower  animals,  yet 


METHODS  OF  RESTRICTION 


215 


the  small  percentage  of  unmated  individuals  indicates  that  its 
importance  in  evolution  could  not  be  very  great.  ^ 

In  man,  however,  there  is — nowadays  at  least — a  considerable 
percentage  of  unmated  individuals.    The  Census  of  19 10  shows 

70 


60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 


80+     70+     6O4-     50+ 

Facial  Attractiveness 


40+ 


HOW  BEAUTY  AIDS  A  GIRL'S  CHANCE  OF  MARRIAGE 
Fig.  32. — Graph  showing  the  marriage  rate  of  graduates  of  a  normal  school, 
correlated  with  their  facial  attractiveness  as  graded  by  estimates.  The  column  of 
figures  at  the  left-hand  side  shows  the  percentage  of  girls  who  married.  Of  the 
prettiest  girls  (those  graded  80  or  over),  70%  married.  As  the  less  attractive  girls 
are  added  to  the  chart,  the  marriage  rate  declines.  Of  the  girls  who  graded  around 
50  on  looks,  only  about  one-half  married.  In  general,  the  prettier  the  girl,  the 
greater  the  probability  that  she  will  not  remain  single. 

that  in  the  United  States  one- fourth  of  all  the  men  between 
25  and  44  years  of  age,  and  one-sixth  of  all  the  women,  were 
unmarried.     Many  of  the  men,  and  a  smaller  number  of  the 

*  An  interesting  and  critical  treatment  of  sexual  selection  is  given  by  Vernon  L. 
Kellogg  in  Darwinism  Today,  pp.  106-128  (New  York,  1908).  Darwin's  own  dis- 
cussion {The  Descent  of  Man)  is  still  very  well  worth  reading,  if  the  reader  is  on  his 
guard.  The  best  general  treatment  of  the  theory  of  sexual  selection,  especially  as 
it  applies  to  man,  is  in  chapter  XI  of  Karl  Pearson's  Grammar  of  Science  (2d  ed., 
London,  1900). 


2l6 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


women,  will  still  marry;  yet  at  the  end  there  will  remain  a  large 
number,  particularly  in  the  more  highly  educated  classes,  who 
die  celibate.  If  these  unmated  individuals  differ  in  any  im- 
portant respect  from  the  married  part  of  the  population,  pre- 
ferential mating  will  be  evident. 
At  the  extremes,  there  is  no  difficulty  in  seeing  such  mating. 


90+  80-j-  70-h 

Mafks 


60+ 


INTELLIGENT  GIRLS  ARE  MOST  LIKELY  TO 
MARRY 
Fig.  33. — Graph  showing  the  marriage- rate  (on  the 
same  scale  as  in  Fig.  32)  of  the  graduates  of  a  normal 
school,  as  correlated  with  their  class  standing.  The 
girls  who  received  the  highest  marks  in  their  studies 
married  in  the  largest  numbers.  It  is  evident  that,  on 
the  whole,  girls  who  make  a  ix)or  showing  in  their 
studies  in  such  schools  as  this  are  more  likely  to  be 
lifelong  celibates  than  are  the  bright  students. 

Certain  men  and  women  are  so  defective,  physically,  mentally, 
or  morally,  as  to  be  unable  to  find  mates.  They  may  be 
idiots,  or  diseased,  or  lacking  normal  sexuality,  or  wrongly 
educated. 

But  to  get  any  adequate  statistical  proof  of  preferential  mat- 
ing on  a  broad  scale,  has  been  found  difficult.  Two  small  but 
suggestive  studies  made  by  Miss  Carrie  F.  Gilmore  of  the 
University  of  Pittsburgh  are  interesting,  though  far  from  con- 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION    217 


elusive.  She  examined  the  records  of  the  class  of  igo2,  South- 
western State  Normal  School  of  Pennsylvania,  to  find  which  of 
the  girls  had  married.  By  means  of  photographs,  and  the 
opinions  of  disinterested  judges,  the  facial  appearance  of  all  the 


Ul 


n 


cQ. 


n 


1  i  H  4    k  1   •    ^  lo  II   n  li  It  IS  n  n  It  If  to  II  It  ij  it  a-  u  ii  2t  i/f  ^  11  JiM  jy  ji-j< 


YEARS  BETWEEN  GRADUATION  AND  MARRIAGE 
Fig.  34. — Curve  showing  period  that  elapsed  between  the  graduation  of  women  at 
Washington  Seminary  (at  the  average  age  of  ig  years)  and  their  marriage.    It  includes 
all  the  graduates  of  the  classes  of  1841  to  1900,  status  of  1913. 

girls  in  the  class  was  graded  on  a  scale  of  100,  and  the  curve  in 
Fig.  32  plotted,  which  shows  at  a  glance  just  what  matrimonial 
advantage  a  woman's  beauty  gives  her.  In  general,  it  may  be 
said  that  the  prettier  the  girl,  the  better  her  chance  of  marriage. 
Miss  Gilmore  further  worked  out  the  marriage  rate  of  these 
normal  school  girls,  on  the  basis  of  the  marks  they  obtained  in 
their  class  work,  and  found  the  results  plotted  in  Fig.  2>Z-    ^^  is 


2l8 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


evident  that  the  most  intelligent  girls,  measured  by  their  class 
standing,  were  preferred  as  wives. 

It  will  be  noted  that  these  studies  merely  show  that  the 
brighter  and  prettier  girls  were  preferred  by  men  as  a  class.    If 


GENERATIONS 


THf^EE 


FOUR 


ONE 
CENTURY 


THE  EFFECT  OF  LATE  MARRIAGES 
Fig.  35- — Given  a  population  divided  in  two  equal  parts,  one  of  which  produces  a 
new  generation  every  25  years  and  the  other  every  33  1/3  years,  the  diagram  shows 
that  the  former  group  will  outnumber  the  latter  two  to  one,  at  the  end  of  a  century. 
The  result  illustrated  is  actually  taking  place,  in  various  groups  of  the  population  of 
the  United  States.  Largely  for  economic  reasons,  many  superior  people  are  post- 
poning the  time  of  marriage.  The  diagram  shows  graphically  how  they  are  losing 
ground,  in  comparison  with  other  sections  of  the  population  which  marry  only  a  few 
years  earlier,  on  the  average.  It  is  assumed  in  the  diagram  that  the  two  groups  con- 
tain equal  numbers  of  the  two  sexes;  that  all  persons  in  each  group  marry;  and  that 
each  couple  produces  four  children. 

the  individual  men  whom  the  girls  married  had  been  studied, 
it  would  probably  have  been  found  that  the  mating  was  also 
partly  assortative. 

If  the  choice  of  a  life  partner  is  to  be  eugenic,  random  mating 
must  be  as  nearly  as  possible  eliminated,  and  assortative  and 
preferential  mating  for  desirable  traits  must  take  place. 

The  concern  of  the  eugenist  is,  then,  (i)  to  see  that  young 
people  have  the  best  ideals,  and  (2)  to  see  that  their  matings  are 
actually  guided  by  these  ideals,  instead  of  by  caprice  and  passion 
alone. 

I.  In  discussing  ideals,  we  shall  ask  (a)  what  are  the  present 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION     219 

ideals  governing  sexual  selection  in  the  United  States;  (b)  is  it 
psychologically  possible  to  change  them;  (c)  is  it  desirable  that 
they  be  changed,  and  if  so,  in  what  ways? 

(a)  There  are  several  studies  which  throw  light  on  the  cur- 
rent ideals.  Physical  Culture  magazine  lately  invited  its  women 
readers  to  send  in  the  specifications  of  an  ideal  husband,  and  the 
results  are  worth  considering  because  the  readers  of  that  publi- 
cation are  probably  less  swayed  by  purely  conventional  ideas 
than  are  most  accessible  groups  of  women  whom  one  might  ques- 
tion. The  ideal  husband  was  held  by  these  women  to  be  made 
up  of  the  following  qualities  in  the  proportions  given: 

Per  cent. 

Health 20 

Financial  success ^ 19 

Paternity • 18 

Appearance 11 

Disposition 8 

Education 8 

Character 6 

Housekeeping 7 

Dress 3 


Without  laying  weight  on  the  exact  figures,  and  recognizing 
that  each  woman  may  have  defined  the  qualities  differently, 
yet  one  must  admit  aside  from  a  low  concern  for  mental  abil- 
ity that  this  is  a  fairly  good  eugenic  specification.  Appearance, 
it  is  stated,  meant  not  so  much  facial  beauty  as  intelligent  ex- 
pression and  manly  form.  Financial  success  is  correlated  with 
intelligence  and  efficiency,  and  probably  is  not  rated  too  high. 
The  importance  attached  to  paternity — which,  it  is  explained, 
means  a  clean  sex  life  as  well  as  interest  in  children — is  worth 
noticing. 

For  comparison  there  is  another  census  of  the  preferences  of 
115  young  women  at  Brigham  Young  College,  Logan,  Utah. 
This  is  a  "Mormon"  institution  and  the  students,  mostly 
farmers'  daughters,  are  probably  expressing  ideals  which  have 


220  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

been  very  little  affected  by  the  demorali/dng  influences  of  modern 
city  life.    The  editor  of  the  college  paper  relates  that: 

Eighty-six  per  cent  of  the  girls  specifically  stated  that  the  young 
man  must  be  morally  pure;  14%  did  not  specifically  state. 

Ninety-nine  per  cent  specifically  stated  that  he  must  be  mentally 
and  physically  strong. 

Ninety-three  per  cent  stated  that  he  must  absolutely  not  smoke, 
chew,  or  drink;  7%  did  not  state. 

Twenty  per  cent  named  an  occupation  they  would  like  the  young 
man  to  follow,  and  these  fell  into  three  different  classes,  that  of 
farmer,  doctor  and  business. 

Four  and  seven-tenths  per  cent  of  the  20%  named  farmer;  2.7% 
named  doctor,  and  1.7%  named  business  man;  80%  did  not  state 
any  profession. 

Thirty-three  and  one-third  per  cent  specifically  stated  that  he 
must  be  ambitious;  66^/3%  did  not  state. 

Eight  per  cent  stated  specifically  that  he  must  have  high  ideals. 

Fifty-two  per  cent  demanded  that  he  be  of  the  same  religious  con- 
viction; 48%  said  nothing  about  religion. 

Seventy-two  per  cent  said  nothing  regarding  money  matters;  28% 
stated  what  his  financial  condition  must  be,  but  none  named  a  specific 
amount.  One-half  of  the  28%  stated  that  he  must  be  rich,  and  three- 
fourths  of  these  were  under  twenty  years  of  age;  the  other  half  of  the 
28%  said  that  he  must  have  a  moderate  income  and  two-thirds  of 
these  were  under  twenty  years  of  age. 

Forty-five  per  cent  stated  that  the  yoimg  man  must  be  taller  than 
they;  55%  did  not  state. 

Twenty  per  cent  stated  that  the  young  man  must  be  older,  and 
from  two  to  eight  years  older;  80%  did  not  state. 

Fifty  per  cent  stated  that  he  must  have  a  good  education;  one- 
fourth  of  the  50%  stated  that  he  must  have  a  college  education; 
95%  of  these  were  under  twenty-one  years  of  age;  50%  did  not  state 
his  intellectual  attainments. 

Ninety-one  per  cent  of  all  the  ideals  handed  in  were  written  by  per- 
sons under  twenty  years  of  age;  the  other  8J4%  were  over  twenty 
years  of  age. 

Physical  Culture,  on  another  occasion,  invited  its  male  readers 
to  express  their  requirements  of  an  ideal  wife.  The  proportions 
of  the  various  elements  desired  are  given  as  follows: 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION     221 

Per  cent 

Health 23 

"Looks" 14 

Housekeeping 12 

Disposition 11 

Maternity 11 

Education 10 

Management 7 

Dress 7 

Character 5 


One  might  feel  some  surprise  at  the  low  valuation  placed  on 
"character,"  but  it  is  really  covered  by  other  points.  On  the 
whole,  one  can  not  be  dissatisfied  with  these  specifications  aside 
from  its  slight  concern  about  mental  ability. 

Such  wholesome  ideals  are  probably  rather  widespread  in  the 
less  sophisticated  part  of  the  population.  In  other  strata,  social 
and  financial  criteria  of  selection  hold  much  importance.  As  a 
family  ascends  in  economic  position,  its  standards  of  sexual 
selection  are  likely  to  change.  And  in  large  sections  of  the  pop- 
ulation, there  is  a  fluctuation  in  the  standards  from  generation 
to  generation.  There  is  reason  to  suspect  that  the  standards  of 
sexual  selection  among  educated  young  women  in  the  United 
States  to-day  are  higher  than  they  were  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
or  even  a  decade,  ago.  They  are  demanding  a  higher  degree  of 
physical  fitness  and  morality  in  their  suitors.  Men,  in  turn,  are 
beginning  to  demand  that  the  girls  they  marry  shall  be  fitted  for 
the  duties  of  home-maker,  wife  and  mother, — qualifications 
which  were  essential  in  the  colonial  period  but  little  insisted  on 
in  the  immediate  past. 

(b)  It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  standards  of  sexual  selection 
do  change;  there  is  therefore  reason  to  suppose  that  they  can 
change  still  further.  This  is  an  important  point,  for  it  is  often 
alleged  as  an  objection  to  eugenics  that  human  affections  are 
capricious  and  can  not  be  influenced  by  rational  considerations. 
Such  an  objection  will  be  seen,  on  reflection,  to  be  ill-founded. 

As  to  the  extent  of  change  possible,  the  psychologist  must  have 


222  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

the  final  word.  The  ingenious  Mr.  Diffloth/  who  reduced  love 
to  a  series  of  algebraical  formulae  and  geometrical  curves,  and 
proposed  that  every  young  man  should  find  a  girl  whose  curve 
was  congruent  to  his  own,  and  at  once  lead  her  to  the  altar, 
is  not  likely  to  gain  many  adherents.  But  the  psychologist 
declares  without  hesitation  that  it  is  possible  to  influence  the 
course  of  love  in  its  earlier,  though  rarely  in  its  later,  stages. 
Francis  Galton  pointed  this  out  with  his  usual  clearness,  showing 
that  in  the  past  the  "incidence"  of  love,  to  borrow  a  technical 
term,  had  been  frequently  and  sometimes  narrowly  limited  by 
custom — by  those  unwritten  laws  which  are  sometimes  as 
effective  as  the  WTitten  ones.  Monogamy,  endogamy,  exogamy, 
Australian  marriages,  tabu,  prohibited  degrees  and  sacerdotal 
celibacy  all  furnished  him  with  historical  arguments  to  show  that 
society  could  bring  about  almost  any  restriction  it  chose;  and 
a  glance  aroimd  at  the  present  day  will  show  that  the  barriers 
set  up  by  religion,  race  and  social  position  are  frequently  of 
almost  prohibitive  effect. 

There  is,  therefore,  from  a  psychological  point  of  view,  no 
reason  why  the  ideals  of  eugenics  should  not  become  a  part  of  the 
mores  or  unwritten  laws  of  the  race,  and  why  the  selection  of  life 
partners  should  not  be  unconsciously  influenced  to  a  very  large 
extent  by  them.  As  a  necessary  preliminary  to  such  a  condition, 
intelligent  people  must  cultivate  the  attitude  of  conscious  selec- 
tion, and  get  away  from  the  crude,  fatalistic  viewpoint  which  is 
to-day  so  widespread,  and  which  is  exploited  ad  nauseam  on  the 
stage  and  in  fiction.  It  must  be  remembered  that  there  are  two 
well-marked  stages  preceding  a  betrothal:  the  first  is  that  of 
mere  attraction,  when  reason  is  still  operative,  and  the  second 
is  that  of  actual  love,  when  reason  is  relegated  to  the  background. 
During  the  later  stage,  it  is  notorious  that  good  counsel  is  of 
little  avail,  but  during  the  preliminary  period  direction  of  the 
affections  is  still  possible,  not  only  by  active  interference  of 
friends  or  relatives,  but  much  more  easily  and  usefully  by  the 
tremendous  influence  of  the  mores. 

Eugenic  mores  will  exist  only  when  many  intelligent  people 

^  Diffloth,  Paul,  Le  Fin  de  L'Enigme,  Paris,  1907. 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION     223 

become  so  convinced  of  the  ethical  value  of  eugenics  that  that 
conviction  sinks  into  their  subconscious  minds.  The  general 
eugenics  campaign  can  be  expected  to  bring  that  result  about  in 
due  time.  Care  must  be  taken  to  prevent  highly  conscientious 
people  from  being  too  critical,  and  letting  a  trivial  defect  out- 
weigh a  large  number  of  good  qualities.  Moreover,  changes  in 
the  standards  of  sexual  selection  should  not  be  too  rapid,  as  that 
results  in  the  permanent  celibacy  of  some  excellent  but  hyper- 
critical individuals.  The  ideal  is  an  advance  of  standards  as 
rapidly  as  will  yet  keep  all  the  superior  persons  married.  This 
is  accomplished  if  all  superior  individuals  marry  as  well  as  pos- 
sible, yet  with  advancing  years  gradually  reduce  the  standard 
so  that  celibacy  may  not  result. 

Having  decided  that  there  is  room  for  improvement  in  the 
standards  of  sexual  selection,  and  that  such  improvement  is 
psychologically  feasible,  we  come  to  point  (c) :  in  what  particular 
ways  is  this  improvement  needed?  Any  discussion  of  this  large 
subject  must  necessarily  be  only  suggestive,  not  exhaustive. 

If  sexual  selection  is  to  be  taken  seriously,  it  is  imperative 
that  there  be  some  improvement  in  the  general  attitude  of  public 
sentiment  toward  love  itself.  It  is  difficult  for  the  student  to 
acquire  sound  knowledge  ^  of  the  normal  manifestations  of  love: 
the  psychology  of  sex  has  been  studied  too  largely  from  the  ab- 
normal and  pathological  side;  while  the  popular  idea  is  based 
too  much  on  fiction  and  drama  which  emphasize  the  high  lights 
and  make  love  solely  an  affair  of  emotion.  We  are  not  arguing 
for  a  rationalization  of  love,  for  the  terms  are  almost  contradic- 
tory; but  we  believe  that  more  common  sense  could  profitably 
be  used  in  considering  the  subject. 

If  a  typical  "love  affair"  be  examined,  it  is  found  that  pro- 
pinquity and  a  common  basis  for  sympathy  in  some  probably 
trivial  matter  lead  to  the  development  of  the  sex  instinct; 
the  parental  instinct  begins  to  make  itself  felt,  particu- 
larly among  women;  the  instincts  of  curiosity,  acquisitiveness, 

*  The  best  popular  yet  scientific  treatment  of  the  subject  we  have  seen  is  The 
Dynamic  of  Manhood,  a  book  recently  written  by  Luther  H.  Gulick  for  the  Young' 
Men's  Christian  Association  (New  York,  The  Association  Press,  1917). 


«t 


APfUED  ETCaEXICS 


attiji  Iwr 
left  togs  K^.-rtr!  in 


:  ra-r^aad  i 


«.^^  :i}ri. 


THE  IMPRO\'EMEXT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTIOX    22s 

are  vow  dnvng  toe  f  imilinps  mto  vioqgi 

fioas  cam  onty  be  hradrrf  in  the  i^B^ 
#nMi<iiMw.  iIk  bctla;  fior  tky  are  tfe 
aic  respansAle  for  alwinwl"  cvu^tbrng  tihat  b  < 

TlKre  is  in  tiie  wvid  plealy  of  dot  love  wkick  B  a  Hitler  flf 
— "^M^  service  and  at  rmntinn<  nnMwijiwi  hf  anjr  petty  or 
sa«didinllnaMJCs;bntitongbtnotflniytobeiii— iM.ito^^ 
tobemnvasaL  Itisnot&eiytDbeMthepresrMtcjBHliny^ht 
at  kast,  fWiAing  people  can  oansaairif  adapt  an  attitnde  off 
lespcct  tcwCTid  VoKT,  and  caiBdousiy  atmidon  ^  far  ^  piwaahir 

it, — an  alliiuile  vlnck  b  refledbed  so  duguling^  m 
vandcviDe  and  wanral  co— a^. 

It  B  tlie  ciEtani  to  snnfe  at  tlic  CKtxssaismtlf  raaantic  idea  of 
love  nlndhi  the  boanfin^-school  gjnl  bolfe;  bat  MncaEaUc  as  it 
m^  be,  bees  b  a  nobler  oaoceptian  tban  tbat  vbidk  tbe  ■»- 
jarilyof  aduhs^ranoeL  VciypniperiyvonedoesnotcuctDnafce 
onc^  dtipiAl  ii >,liii|»^  pudilir;  bodt  M  stdk  siAjecis  as  love  and 
■ulbcibood  can  not  bcdBcnssednatmaByand^ntikoHlaSBCla- 
tian^dicyaqBiittDbckftabne.  H inli i^inl  —  n  inil ^OMcn 
viB  set  tbc  nan^ilr,  tbB  atlitnde  off  Mad  vfl  spread,  and 
cohnred  famffies  at  kast  vSiid  tbcBBdvcsof  snckdeplaaabie 
babits  as  tbat  of  pfc^p^  dddicn,  not  3fct  oat  of  the  nHsoj, 
aboot  Adr  "sweeAearts." 

No  sane  man  nuuU  den^y^  die  desaabffily  of  beutj/  k  a  irife, 
partimhrfy  nben  it  b  u  urn  mlw  led  tbat  beanly,  rsprriaBy  as 
octeiWMed  by  good  aawplt  iw,  good  teedk  and  1 
B  oondated  with  good  beahh  in  sane  dr^gree,  and  1 
inld^gLnce.  KcvctAeiess^  vc  are  iliing,lj  of  Ae  opiHan  Ant 
beantf  of  face  B  nonr  too  b^EJkfy^  Talaed,  as  a : 


226  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Good  health  in  a  mate  is  a  qualification  which  any  sensible 
man  or  woman  will  require,  and  for  which  a  "marriage  cer- 
tificate" is  in  most  cases  quite  unnecessary.^  What  other 
physical  standard  is  there  that  should  be  given  weight? 

Alexander  Graham  Bell  has  lately  been  emphasizing  the 
importance  of  longevity  in  this  connection,  and  in  our  judgment 
he  has  thereby  opened  up  a  very  fruitful  field  for  education.  It 
goes  without  saying  that  anyone  would  prefer  to  marry  a  partner 
with  a  good  constitution.  "How  can  we  find  a  test  of  a  good, 
soimd  constitution?"  Dr.  Bell  asked  in  a  recent  lecture.  "I 
think  we  could  find  it  in  the  duration  of  life  in  a  family.  Take  a 
family  in  which  a  large  proportion  live  to  old  age  with  unim- 
paired faculties.  There  you  know  is  a  good  constitution  in  an 
inheritable  form.  On  the  other  hand,  you  will  find  a  family  in 
which  a  large  proportion  die  at  birth  and  in  which  there  are 
relatively  few  people  who  live  to  extreme  old  age.  There  has 
developed  an  hereditary  weakness  of  constitution.  Longevity 
is  a  guide  to  constitution."  Not  only  does  it  show  that  one's 
vital  organs  are  in  good  running  order,  but  it  is  probably  the 
only  means  now  available  of  indicating  strains  which  are  re- 
sistant to  zymotic  disease.  Early  death  is  not  necessarily  an 
evidence  of  physical  weakness;  but  long  life  is  a  pretty  good 
proof  of  constitutional  strength. 

Dr.  Bell  has  elsewhere  called  attention  to  the  fact  that,, 
longevity  being  a  characteristic  which  is  universally  considered 
creditable  in  a  family,  there  is  no  tendency  on  the  part  of 
families  to  conceal  its  existence,  as  there  is  in  the  case  of  un- 
favorable characters — cancer,  tuberculosis,  insanity,  and  the 
like.  This  gives  it  a  great  advantage  as  a  criterion  for  sexual 
selection,  since  there  will  be  little  difficulty  in  finding  whether 
or  not  the  ancestors  of  a  young  man  or  woman  were  long-lived.^ 

high  cheek-bones,  light  eyes,  large  nose,  small  stature,  long  neck  or  teeth,  bushy 
brows,  pimples,  red  hair.  An  interesting  study  of  some  of  the  trivial  traits  of  man- 
ner which  may  be  handicaps  in  sexual  selection  is  published  by  Iva  Lowther  Peters 
in  the  Pedagogical  Seminary,  XXIII,  No.  4,  pp.  550-570,  Dec,  1916. 

'  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  same  goal  would  be  reached  if  a  young  man  be- 
fore marriage  would  take  out  a  life  insurance  policy  in  the  name  of  his  bride.  The 
suggestion  has  many  good  points. 

*  The  correlation  between  fecundity  and  longevity  which  Karl  Pearson  has  demon* 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION     227 

Karl  Pearson  and  his  associates  have  shown  that  there  is  a 
tendency  to  assortative  mating  for  longevity:  that  people  from 
long-lived  stocks  actually  do  marry  people  from  similar  stocks, 
more  frequently  than  would  be  the  case  if  the  matings  were  at 
random.  An  increase  of  this  tendency  would  be  eugenically 
desirable.^     So  much  for  the  physique. 

Though  eugenics  is  popularly  supposed  to  be  concerned  almost 
wholly  with  the  physical,  properly  it  gives  most  attention  to 
mental  traits,  recognizing  that  these  are  the  ones  which  most 
frequently  make  races  stand  or  fall,  and  that  attention  to  the 
physique  is  worth  while  mainly  to  furnish  a  sound  body  in  which 
the  sound  mind  may  function.  Now  men  and  women  may  excel 
mentally  in  very  many  different  ways,  and  eugenics,  which  seeks 
not  to  produce  a  uniform  good  type,  but  excellence  in  all  de- 
sirable types,  is  not  concerned  to  pick  out  any  particular  sort  of 
mental  superiority  and  exalt  it  as  a  standard  for  sexual  selection. 
But  the  tendency,  shown  in  Miss  Gilmore's  study,  for  men  to 
prefer  the  more  intelligent  girls  in  secondary  schools,  is  gratifying 
to  the  eugenist,  since  high  mental  endowment  is  principally  a 
matter  of  heredity.  From  a  eugenic  point  of  view  it  would  be 
well  could  such  intellectual  accomplishments  weigh  even  more 
heavily  with  the  average  young  man,  and  less  weight  be  put  on 
such  superficial  characteristics  as  "flashiness,"  ability  to  use  the 
latest  slang  freely,  and  other  "smart"  traits  which  are  usually 
considered  attractive  in  a  girl,  but  which  have  no  real  value  and 
soon  become  tiresome.  They  are  not  wholly  bad  in  themselves, 
but  certainly  should  not  influence  a  young  man  very  seriously 
in  his  choice  of  a  wife,  nor  a  young  woman  in  her  choice  of  a 
husband.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  such  standards  are  largely 
promoted  by  the  stage,  the  popular  song,  and  popular  fiction. 

In  a  sense,  the  education  which  a  young  woman  has  received 

strated  gives  longevity  another  great  advantage  as  a  standard  in  sexual  selection. 
See  Proc.  Royal  Soc.  London,  Vol.  67,  p.  159. 

^  It  is  objected  that  if  the  long-lived  marry  each  other,  the  short-lived  will  also 
marry  each  other  and  thus  the  race  will  gain  no  more  than  it  loses.  The  reply  to 
this  is  that  the  short-lived  will  marry  in  fewer  numbers,  as  some  of  them  die  pre- 
maturely; that  they  will  have  fewer  children;  and  that  these  children  in  turn  will 
tend  to  die  young.  Thus  the  short-lived  strains  will  gradually  run  out,  while  the 
long-lived  strains  are  disseminated. 


228  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

is  no  concern  of  the  eugenist,  since  it  can  not  be  transmitted  to 
her  children.  Yet  when,  as  often  happens,  children  die  because 
their  mother  was  not  properly  trained  to  bring  them  up,  this 
feature  of  education  does  become  a  concern  of  eugenics.  Young 
men  are  more  and  more  coming  to  demand  that  their  wives  know 
something  about  woman's  work,  and  this  demand  must  not  only 
increase,  but  must  be  adequately  met.  Woman's  education  is 
treated  in  more  detail  in  another  chapter. 

It  is  proper  to  point  out  here,  however,  that  in  many  cases 
woman's  education  gives  no  great  opportunity  to  judge  of  her 
real  intellectual  ability.  Her  natural  endowment  in  this  respect 
should  be  judged  also  by  that  of  her  sisters,  brothers,  parents,' 
uncles,  aunts  and  grandparents.  If  a  girl  comes  of  an  in- 
tellectual ancestry,  it  is  likely  that  she  herself  will  carry  such 
traits  germinally,  even  if  she  has  never  had  an  opportunity  to 
develop  them.  She  can,  then,  pass  them  on  to  her  own  children. 
Francis  Galton  long  ago  pointed  out  the  good  results  of  a  cus- 
tom obtaining  in  Germany,  whereby  college  professors  tended  to 
marry  the  daughters  or  sisters  of  college  professors.  A  tendency 
for  men  of  science  to  marry  women  of  scientific  attainments  or 
training  is  marked  among  biologists,  at  least,  in  the  United 
States;  and  the  number  of  cases  in  which  musicians  intermarry 
is  striking.  Such  assortative  mating  means  that  the  offspring 
will  usually  be  well  endowed  with  a  talent. 

Finally,  young  people  should  be  taught  a  greater  appreciation 
of  the  lasting  qualities  of  comradeship,  for  which  the  purely 
emotional  factors  that  make  up  mere  sexual  attraction  are  far 
from  offering  a  satisfactory  substitute. 

It  will  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  point  out  that  a  change  in  the 
social  valuation  of  reputability  and  honor  is  greatly  needed  for 
the  better  working  of  sexual  selection.  The  conspicuous  waste 
and  leisure  that  Thorstein  Veblen  points  out  as  the  chief  criterion 
of  reputability  at  present  have  a  dubious  relation  to  high  mental 
or  moral  endowment,  far  less  than  has  wealth.  There  is  much 
left  to  be  done  to  achieve  a  meritorious  distribution  of  wealth. 
The  fact  that  the  insignia  of  success  are  too  often  awarded  to 
trickery,  callousness  and  luck  does  not  argue  for  the  abolition 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION    229 

altogether  of  the  financial  success  element  in  reputability,  in 
favor  of  a  "dead  level"  of  equality  such  as  would  result  from  the 
application  of  certain  communistic  ideals.  Distinctions,  rightly 
awarded,  are  an  aid,  not  a  hindrance  to  sexual  selection,  and 
effort  should  be  directed,  from  the  eugenic  point  of  view,  no  less 
to  the  proper  recognition  of  true  superiority  than  to  the  elimina- 
tion of  unjustified  differentiations  of  reputability. 

This  leads  to  the  consideration  of  moral  standards,  and  here 
again  details  are  complex  but  the  broad  outlines  clear.  It  seems 
probable  that  morality  is  to  a  considerable  extent  a  matter  of 
heredity,  and  the  care  of  the  eugenist  should  be  to  work  with 
every  force  that  makes  for  a  clear  understanding  of  the  moral 
factors  of  the  world,  and  to  work  against  every  force  that  tends  to 
confuse  the  issues.  When  the  issue  is  clear  cut,  most  people  will 
by  instinct  tend  to  marry  into  moral  rather  than  immoral  stocks. 

True  quality,  then,  should  be  emphasized  at  the  expense  of 
false  standards.  Money,  social  status,  family  alignment, 
though  indicators  to  some  degree,  must  not  be  taken  too  much 
at  their  face  value.  Emphasis  is  to  be  placed  on  real  merit  as 
shown  by  achievement,  or  on  descent  from  the  meritoriously 
eminent,  whether  or  not  such  eminence  has  led  to  the  accumula- 
tion of  a  family  fortune  and  inclusion  in  an  exclusive  social  set. 
In  this  respect,  it  is  important  that  the  value  of  a  high  average 
of  ancestry  should  be  realized.  A  single  case  of  eminence  in  a 
pedigree  should'  not  weigh  too  heavily.  When  it  is  remembered 
that  statistically  one  grandparent  counts  for  less  than  one- 
sixteenth  in  the  heredity  of  an  individual,  it  will  be  obvious 
that  the  individual  whose  sole  claim  to  consideration  is  a  dis- 
tinguished grandfather,  is  not  necessarily  a  matrimonial  prize. 
A  general  high  level  of  morality  and  mentality  in  a  family  is 
much  more  advantageous,  from  the  eugenic  point  of  view,  than 
one  "Hon"  several  generations  back. 

While  we  desire  very  strongly  to  emphasize  the  importance  of 
breeding  and  the  great  value  of  a  good  ancestry,  it  is  only  fair  to 
utter  a  word  of  warning  in  this  connection.  Good  ancestry  does 
not  necessarily  make  a  man  or  woman  a  desirable  partner.  What 
stockmen  know  as  the  "pure-bred  scrub"  is  a  recognized  evil  in 


230  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

animal  breeding,  and  not  altogether  absent  from  human  society. 
Due  to  any  one  or  more  of  a  number  of  causes,  it  is  possible  for  a 
germinal  degenerate  to  appear  in  a  good  family;  discrimina- 
tion should  certainly  be  made  against  such  an  individual.  Fur- 
thermore, it  is  possible  that  there  occasionally  arises  what  may 
be  called  a  mutant  of  very  desirable  character  from  a  eu- 
genic point  of  view.  Furthermore  a  stock  in  general  below 
mediocrity  will  occasionally,  due  to  some  fortuitous  but  fortu- 
nate combination  of  traits,  give  rise  to  an  individual  of  marked 
abihty  or  even  eminence,  who  will  be  able  to  transmit  in 
some  degree  that  valuable  new  combination  of  traits  to  his 
or  her  own  progeny.  Persons  of  this  character  are  to  be  re- 
garded by  eugenists  as  distinctly  desirable  husbands  or  wives. 

The  desirability  of  selecting  a  wife  (or  husband)  from  a  family 
of  more  than  one  or  two  children  was  emphasized  by  Benjamin 
Franklin,  and  is  also  one  of  the  time-honored  traditions  of  the 
Arabs,  who  have  always  looked  at  eugenics  in  a  very  practical, 
if  somewhat  cold-blooded  way.  It  has  two  advantages:  in  the 
first  place,  one  can  get  a  better  idea  of  what  the  individual 
really  is,  by  examining  sisters  and  brothers;  and  in  the  second 
place,  there  will  be  less  danger  of  a  childless  marriage,  since  it  is 
already  proved  that  the  individual  comes  of  a  fertile  stock. 
Francis  Galton  showed  clearly  the  havoc  wrought  in  the  English 
peerage,  by  marriages  with  heiresses  (an  heiress  there  being 
nearly  always  an  only  child).  Such  women  were  childless  in  a 
much  larger  proportion  than  ordinary  women. 

"Marrying  a  man  to  reform  him"  is  a  speculation  in  which 
many  women  have  indulged  and  usually — it  may  be  said  without 
fear  of  contradiction — with  unfortunate  results.  It  is  always 
likely  that  she  will  fail  to  reform  him;  it  is  certain  that  she  can 
not  reform  his  germ-plasm.  Psychologists  agree  that  the  charac- 
ter of  a  man  or  woman  undergoes  little  radical  change  after  the 
age  of  25;  and  the  eugenist  knows  that  it  is  largely  determined, 
potentially,  when  the  individual  is  born.  It  is,  therefore,  in  most 
cases  the  height  of  folly  to  select  a  partner  with  any  marked 
undesirable  trait,  with  the  idea  that  it  will  change  after  a  few 
years. 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION    231 

All  these  suggestions  have  in  general  been  directed  at  the 
young  man  or  woman,  but  it  is  admitted  that  if  they  reach  their 
target  at  all,  it  is  likely  to  be  by  an  indirect  route.  No  rules  or 
devices  can  take  the  place,  in  influencing  sexual  selection,  of  that 
lofty  and  rational  ideal  of  marriage  which  must  be  brought  about 
by  the  uplifting  of  public  opinion.  It  is  difficidt  to  bring  under 
the  control  of  reason  a  subject  that  has  so  long  been  left  to 
caprice  and  impulse;  yet  much  can  unquestionably  be  done,  in 
an  age  of  growing  social  responsibility,  to  put  marriage  in  a 
truer  perspective.  Much  is  already  being  done,  but  not  in  every 
case  of  change  is  the  future  biological  welfare  of  the  race  suf- 
ficiently borne  in  mind.  The  interests  of  the  individual  are  too 
often  regarded  to  the  exclusion  of  posterity.  The  eugenist 
would  not  sacrifice  the  individual,  but  he  would  add  the  wel- 
fare of  posterity  to  that  of  the  individual,  when  the  standards 
of  sexual  selection  are  being  fixed.  It  is  only  necessary  to  make 
the  young  person  remember  that  he  will  marry,  not  merely  an 
individual,  but  a  family;  and  that  not  only  his  own  happiness 
but  to  some  extent  the  quality  of  futmre  generations  is  being 
determined  by  his  choice. 

We  must  have  (i)  the  proper  ideals  of  mating  but  (2)  these 
ideals  must  be  realized.  It  is  known  that  many  young  people 
have  the  highest  kind  of  ideals  of  sexual  selection,  and  find 
themselves  quite  unable  to  act  on  them.  The  college  woman 
may  have  a  definite  idea  of  the  kind  of  husband  she  wants;  but 
if  he  never  seeks  her,  she  often  dies  celibate.  The  young  man  of 
science  may  have  an  ideal  bride  in  his  mind,  but  if  he  never 
finds  her,  he  may  finally  marry  his  landlady's  daughter.  Oppor- 
tunity for  sexual  selection  must  be  given,  as  well  as  suitable 
standards;  and  while  education  is  perhaps  improving  the  stand- 
ards each  year,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  modem  social  conditions, 
especially  in  the  large  cities,  tend  steadily  to  decrease  the  op- 
portunity. 

Statistical  evidence,  as  well  as  common  observation,  indicates 
that  the  upper  classes  have  a  much  wider  range  of  choice  in 
marriage  than  the  lower  classes.  The  figures  given  by  Karl 
Pearson  for  the  degree  of  resemblance  between  husband  and 


232  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

wife  with  regard  to  phthisis  are  so  remarkable  as  to  be  worth 
quoting  in  this  connection: 

All  poor -\-  .01 

Prosperous  poor -|-  .  16 

Middle  classes , H"  •  24 

Professional  classes -j- .  28 

It  can  hardly  be  argued  that  infection  between  husband  and 
wife  would  vary  like  this,  even  if  infection,  in  general,  could 
be  proved.  Moreover,  the  least  resemblance  is  among  the  poor, 
where  infection  should  be  greatest.  Professor  Pearson  thinks, 
as  seems  reasonable,  that  this  series  of  figures  indicates  princi- 
pally assortative  mating,  and  shows  that  among  the  poor  there 
is  less  choice,  the  selection  of  a  husband  or  wife  being  more 
largely  due  to  propinquity  or  some  other  more  or  less  random 
factor.  With  a  rise  in  the  social  scale,  opportunity  for  choice 
of  one  from  a  number  of  possible  mates  becomes  greater  and 
greater;  the  tendency  for  an  unconscious  selection  of  likeness 
then  has  a  chance  to  appear,  as  the  coefficients  graphically 
show. 

If  such  a  class  as  the  peerage  of  Great  Britain  be  considered, 
it  is  evident  that  the  range  of  choice  in  marriage  is  almost  un- 
limited. There  are  few  girls  who  can  resist  the  glamor  of  a  title. 
The  hereditary  peer  can  therefore  marry  almost  anyone  he  likes 
and  if  he  does  not  marry  one  of  his  own  class  he  can  select  and 
(until  recently)  usually  has  selected  the  daughter  of  some  man 
who  by  distinguished  ability  has  risen  from  a  lower  social  or 
financial  position.  Thus  the  hereditary  nobilities  of  Europe 
have  been  able  to  maintain  themselves;  and  a  similar  process 
is  undoubtedly  taking  place  among  the  idle  rich  who  occupy 
an  analogous  position  in  the  United  States. 

But  it  is  the  desire  of  eugenics  to  raise  the  average  ability 
of  the  whole  population,  as  well  as  to  encourage  the  production 
of  leaders.  To  fulfill  this  desire,  it  is  obvious  that  one  of  the 
necessary  means  is  to  extend  to  all  desirable  classes  that  range 
of  choice  which  is  now  possessed  only  by  those  near  the  top 
of   the  social  ladder.     It  is  hardly  necessary  to  urge  young 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION    233 

people  to  widen  the  range  of  their  acquaintance,  for  they  will 
do  it  without  urging  if  the  opportunity  is  presented  to  them.  It 
is  highly  necessary  for  parents,  and  for  organizations  and  munic- 
ipalities, deliberately  to  seek  to  further  every  means  which  will 
bring  unmarried  young  people  together  under  proper  supervi- 
sion. Social  workers  have  already  perceived  the  need  of  institu- 
tional as  well  as  municipal  action  on  these  lines,  although  they 
have  not  in  every  case  recognized  the  eugenic  aspect,  and  from 
their  efforts  it  is  probable  that  suitable  institutions,  such  as 
social  centers  and  recreation  piers,  and  municipal  dance  halls, 
will  be  greatly  multiplied. 

It  is  an  encouraging  sign  to  see  such  items  as  this  from  a  Wash- 
ington newspaper:  "The  Modem  Dancing  Club  of  the  Margaret 
Wilson  Social  Center  gave  a  masquerade  ball  at  the  Grover 
Cleveland  school  last  night,  which  was  attended  by  about  itx> 
couples."  Still  more  promising  are  such  institutions  as  the  self- 
supporting  Inkowa  camp  for  young  women,  at  Greenwood 
Lake,  N.  J.,  conducted  by  a  committee  of  which  Miss  Anne 
Morgan  is  president,  and  directed  by  Miss  Grace  Parker.  Near 
it  is  a  similar  camp,  Kechuka,  for  young  men,  and  during  the 
summer  both  are  full  of  young  people  from  New  York  City. 
A  newspaper  account  says: 

There  is  no  charity,  no  philanthropy,  no  subsidy  connected  with 
Camp  Inkowa.  Its  members  are  successful  business  women,  who 
earn  from  $15  to  $25  a  week.  Board  in  the  camp  is  $9  a  week.  So 
every  girl  who  goes  there  for  a  vacation  has  the  comfortable  feeling 
that  she  pays  her  way  fully.  This  rate  includes  all  the  activities  of 
camp  life. 

Architects,  doctors,  lawyers,  bookkeepers,  bank  clerks,  young 
business  men  of  many  kinds  are  the  guests  of  Kechuka.  Next  week 
28  young  men  from  the  National  City  Bank  will  begin  their  vacations 
there, 

Inkowa  includes  yoimg  women  teachers,  stenographers,  librarians, 
private  secretaries  and  girls  doing  clerical  work  for  insurance  com- 
panies and  other  similar  business  institutions. 

Saturday  and  Sunday  are  "at  home"  days  at  Camp  Inkowa  and 
the  young  men  from  Kechuka  may  come  to  call  on  the  Inkowa  girls. 


234  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

partjcii)ate  with  them  in  the  day's  "hike"  or  go  on  the  moonlight 
cruise  around  the  lake  if  there  happens  to  be  one. 

"Young  men  and  women  need  clean,  healthy  association  with 
each  other,"  Miss  Parker  told  me  yesterday,  when  I  si>ent  the  day 
at  Camp  Inkowa.  "Social  workers  in  New  York  city  ask  me  some- 
times, 'How  dare  you  put  young  men  and  women  in  camps  so  near 
to  each  other? ' 

"How  dare  you  not  do  it?  No  plan  of  recreation  or  out-of-door 
life  which  does  not  include  the  healthy  association  of  men  and  woman 
can  be  a  success.  Young  men  and  women  need  each  other's  society. 
And  if  you  get  the  right  kind  they  won't  abuse  their  freedom." 

The  churches  have  been  important  instruments  in  this 
connection,  and  the  worth  of  their  services  can  hardly  be 
o\er-estimated,  as  they  tend  to  bring  together  young  people  of 
similar  tastes  and,  in  general,  of  a  superior  character.  Such  or- 
ganizations as  the  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  Endeavor 
serve  the  eugenic  end  in  a  satisfactory  way;  it  is  almost  the  unan- 
imous opinion  of  competent  observers  that  matches  "made  in 
the  church  "  turn  out  well.  Some  idea  of  the  importance  of  the 
churches  may  be  gathered  from  a  census  which  F.  O.  George  of 
the  University  of  Pittsburgh  made  of  75  married  couples  of  his 
acquaintance,  asking  them  where  they  first  met  each  other. 
The  answers  were: 

Church 32 

School  (only  3  at  college) 19 

Private  home 17 

Dance 7 

75 

These  results  need  not  be  thought  typical  of  more  than  a 
small  part  of  the  country's  population,  yet  they  show  how  far- 
reaching  the  influence  of  the  church  may  be  on  sexual  selection. 
Quite  apart  from  altruistic  motives,  the  churches  might  well  en- 
courage social  affairs  where  the  young  people  could  meet,  be- 
cause to  do  so  is  one  of  the  surest  way  of  perpetuating  the 
church. 

An  increase  in  the  number  of  non-sectarian  bisexual  societies, 


THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  SEXUAL  SELECTION    235 

clubs  and  similar  organizations,  and  a  diminution  of  the  number 
of  those  limited  to  men  or  to  women  alone  is  greatly  to  be  de- 
sired. It  is  doubtful  whether  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
are,  while  separated,  as  useful  to  society  as  they  might  be.  Each 
of  them  tends  to  create  a  celibate  community,  where  the  chance 
for  meeting  possible  mates  is  practically  nil.  The  men's  organi- 
zation has  made,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  little  organized  attempt 
to  meet  this  problem.  The  women's  organization  in  some  cities 
has  made  the  attempt,  but  apparently  with  indifferent  success. 
The  idea  of  a  merger  of  the  two  organizations  with  reasonable 
differentiation  as  well  would  probably  meet  with  little  approval 
from  their  directors  just  now,  but  is  worth  considering  as  an 
answer  to  the  urgent  problem  of  providing  social  contacts  for 
young  people  in  large  cities. 

It  is  encouraging  that  thoughtful  people  in  all  walks  of  life 
are  beginning  to  realize  the  seriousness  of  this  problem  of  con- 
tacts for  the  young,  and  the  necessity  of  finding  some  solution. 
The  novelist  Miss  Maria  Thompson  Davies  of  Sweetbriar  Farm, 
Madison,  Tenn.,  is  quoted  in  a  recent  newspaper  interview  as 
saying: 

"  I'm  a  Wellesley  woman,  but  one  reason  why  I'm  dead  against 
women's  colleges  is  because  they  shut  girls  up  with  women,  at 
the  most  impressionable  period  of  the  girls'  lives,  when  they 
should  be  meeting  members  of  the  opposite  sex  continually, 
learning  to  tolerate  their  little  weaknesses  and  getting  ready  to 
marry  them." 

"  The  city  should  make  arrangements  to  chaperon  the  meet- 
ings of  its  young  citizens.  There  ought  to  be  municipal  gather- 
ing places  where,  under  the  supervision  of  tactful,  warm-hearted 
women — themselves  successfully  married — ^girls  and  young  men 
might  get  introduced  to  each  other  and  might  get  acquainted." 

If  it  is  thought  that  the  time  has  not  yet  come  for  such  muni- 
cipal action,  there  is  certainly  plenty  of  opportunity  for  action  by 
the  parents,  relatives  and  friends  of  young  persons.  The  match- 
making proclivities  of  some  mothers  are  matters  of  current  jest: 
where  subtly  and  wisely  done  they  might  better  be  taken  seri- 
ously and  held  up  as  examples  worthy  of  imitation.     Formal 


236  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

"full  dress"  social  functions  for  young  people,  where  acquaint- 
ance is  likely  to  be  too  perfunctory,  should  be  discouraged,  and 
should  give  place  to  informal  dances,  beach  parties,  house  par- 
ties and  the  like,  where  boys  and  girls  will  have  a  chance  to  come 
to  know  each  other,  and,  at  the  proper  age,  to  fall  in  love.  Let 
social  stratification  be  not  too  rigid,  yet  maintained  on  the  basis 
of  intrinsic  worth  rather  than  solely  on  financial  or  social  posi- 
tion. If  parents  will  make  it  a  matter  of  concern  to  give  their 
boys  and  girls  as  many  desirable  acquaintances  of  the  opposite 
sex  as  possible,  and  to  give  them  opportunity  for  ripening  these 
acquaintances,  the  problem  of  the  improvement  of  sexual  selec- 
tion will  be  greatly  helped.  Young  people  from  homes  where 
such  social  advantages  can  not  be  given,  or  in  large  cities  where 
home  life  is  for  most  of  them  non-existent,  must  become  the 
concern  of  the  municipality,  the  churches,  and  every  institution 
and  organization  that  has  the  welfare  of  the  community  and  the 
race  at  heart. 

To  sum  up  this  chapter,  we  have  pointed  out  the  importance 
of  sexual  selection,  and  shown  that  its  eugenic  action  depends  on 
young  people  having  the  proper  ideals,  and  being  able  to  live 
up  to  these  ideals.  Eugenists  have  in  the  past  devoted  them- 
selves perhaps  too  exclusively  to  the  inculcation  of  sound  ideals, 
without  giving  adequate  attention  to  the  possibility  of  these  high 
standards  being  acted  upon.  One  of  the  greatest  problems  con- 
fronting eugenics  is  that  of  giving  young  people  of  marriageable 
age  a  greater  range  of  choice.  Much  could  be  done  by  organ- 
ized action;  but  it  is  one  of  the  hopeful  features  of  the  problem 
that  it  can  be  handled  in  large  part  by  intelligent  individual  ac- 
tion. If  older  people  would  make  a  conscious  effort  to  help 
young  people  widen  their  circles  of  suitable  acquaintances,  they 
would  make  a  valuable  contribution  to  race  betterment. 


CHAPTER  XII 

INCREASING    THE    MARRIAGE    RATE    OF    THE 
SUPERIOR 

No  race  can  long  survive  unless  it  conforms  to  the  principles 
of  eugenics,  and  indisputably  the  chief  requirement  for  race  sur- 
vival is  that  the  superior  part  of  the  race  should  equal  or  surpass 
the  inferior  part  in  fecundity. 

It  follows  that  the  superior  members  of  the  conununity  must 
marry,  and  at  a  reasonably  early  age.  If  in  the  best  elements  of 
the  community  celibacy  increases,  or  if  marriage  is  postponed 
far  into  the  reproductive  period,  the  racial  contribution  of  the 
superior  will  necessarily  fall,  and  after  a  few  generations  the 
race  will  consist  mainly  of  the  descendants  of  inferior  people,  its 
eugenic  average  being  thereby  much  lowered. 

In  a  survey  of  vital  statistics,  to  ascertain  whether  marriages 
are  as  frequent  and  as  early  as  national  welfare  requires,  the 
eugenist  finds  at  first  no  particularly  alarming  figures. 

In  France,  to  whose  vital  statistics  one  naturally  turns  when- 
ever race  suicide  is  suggested  (and  usually  with  a  holier-than- 
thou  attitude  which  the  Frenchman  might  much  more  correctly 
assume  toward  America),  it  appears  that  there  has  been  a  very 
slight  decrease  in  the  proportion  of  persons  under  20  who  are 
married,  but  that  between  the  ages  of  20  and  30  the  proportion 
of  those  married  has  risen  during  recent  years.  The  same  con- 
dition exists  all  over  Europe,  according  to  F.  H.  Hankins,^  ex- 
cept in  England  and  Scotland.  "Moreover  on  the  whole  mar- 
riages take  place  earlier  in  France  than  in  England,  Germany  or 
America.  Nor  is  this  all,  for  a  larger  proportion  of  the  French 
population  is  married  than  in  any  of  these  countries.  Thus  the 
birth-rate  in  France  has  continued  to  fall  in  spite  of  those  very 

'  Hankins,  F.  H.,  "The  Declining  Birth-Rate,"  Journal  of  Heredity,  V,  pp.  36- 
369,  August,  1914. 

237 


238  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

conditions  which  should  have  sustained  it  or  even  caused  it  to 
increase." 

In  America,  conditions  are  not  dissimilar.  Although  it  is 
generally  believed  that  young  persons  are  marrying  at  a  later 
age  than  they  did  formerly,  the  census  figures  show  that  for  the 
population  as  a  whole  the  reverse  is  the  case.  Marriages  are 
not  only  more  numerous,  but  are  contracted  at  earlier  ages  than 
they  were  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  Comparison  of  census 
returns  for  1890,  1900  and  19 10,  reveals  that  for  both  sexes  the 
percentage  of  married  has  steadily  increased  and  the  percentage 
listed  as  single  has  as  steadily  decreased.  The  census  classifies 
young  men,  for  this  purpose,  in  three  age-groups:  15-19,  20-24, 
and  25-34;  and  in  every  one  of  these  groups,  a  larger  proportion 
w^as  married  in  19 10  than  in  1900  or  1890.  Conditions  are  the 
same  for  women.  So  far  as  the  United  States  as  a  whole  is  con- 
cerned, therefore,  marriage  is  neither  being  avoided  altogether, 
nor  postponed  unduly, — ^in  fact,  conditions  in  both  respects 
seem  to  be  improving  every  year. 

So  far  the  findings  should  gratify  every  eugenist.  But  the 
census  returns  permit  further  analysis  of  the  figures.  They 
classify  the  population  under  four  headings:  Native  White  of 
Native  Parentage,  Native  White  of  Foreign  Parentage  or  of 
Mixed  Parentage,  Foreign-bom  White,  and  Negro.  Except 
among  Foreign-bom  Whites,  who  are  standing  still,  the  returns 
for  1 9 10  show  that  in  every  one  of  these  groups  the  marriage 
rate  has  steadily  increased  during  the  past  three  decades;  and 
that  the  age  of  marriage  is  steadily  declining  in  all  groups  during 
the  same  period,  with  a  slight  irregularity  of  no  real  importance 
in  the  statistics  for  foreign-bom  males. 

On  the  whole,  then,  the  marriage  statistics  of  the  United 
States  are  reassuring.  Even  if  examination  is  limited  to  the 
Native  Whites  of  Native  Parentage,  who  are  probably  of 
greater  eugenic  worth,  as  a  group,  than  any  of  the  other 
three,  the  marriage  rate  is  found  to  be  moving  in  the  right 
direction. 

But  going  a  step  farther,  one  finds  that  within  this  group  there 
are  great  irregularities,  which  do  not  appear  when  the  group  is 


INCREASING  MARRIAGES  OF  SUPERIORS      239 

considered  as  a  whole.    And  these  irregularities  are  of  a  nature 
to  give  the  eugenist  grave  concern. 

If  one  sought,  for  example,  to  find  a  group  of  women  dis- 
tinctly superior  to  the  average,  he  might  safely  take  the  college 
graduates.  Their  superior  quality  as  a  class  lies  in  the  facts 
that: 

(a)  They  have  survived  the  weeding-out  process  of  grammar 
and  high  school,  and  the  repeated  elimination  by  examinations 
in  college. 

(b)  They  have  persevered,  after  those  with  less  mental  abil- 
ity have  grown  tired  of  the  strain  and  have  voluntarily  dropped 
out. 

(c)  Some  have  even  forced  their  way  to  college  against  great 
obstacles,  because  attracted  by  the  opportunities  it  offers  them 
for  mental  activity. 

(d)  Some  have  gone  to  college  because  their  excellence  has 
been  discovered  by  teachers  or  others  who  have  strongly  urged  it. 

All  these  attributes  can  not  be  merely  acquired,  but  must  be  in 
some  degree  inherent.  Furthermore,  these  girls  are  not  only  su- 
perior in  themselves,  but  are  ordinarily  from  superior  parents, 
because 

(a)  Their  parents  have  in  most  cases  cooperated  by  desiring 
this  higher  education  for  their  daughters. 

(b)  The  parents  have  in  most  cases  had  sufficient  economic 
efficiency  to  be  able  to  afford  a  college  course  for  their  daughters. 

Therefore,  although  the  number  of  college  women  in  the 
United  States  is  not  great,  their  value  eugenically  is  wholly 
disproportionate  to  their  numbers.  If  marriage  within  such  a 
selected  class  as  this  is  being  avoided,  or  greatly  postponed,  the 
eugenist  can  not  help  feeling  concerned. 

And  the  first  glance  at  the  statistics  gives  adequate  ground 
for  uneasiness.  Take  the  figures  for  Wellesley  College,  for 
instance: 


'i^o 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


Status  in  fall  of  igi3 


Graduates  All  students 


Per  cent  married  (graduated  1879-if 


Per  cent  married  in: 

10  years  from  graduation . 
20  years  from  graduation . 


55% 

35% 
48% 


60% 


37% 
49% 


From  a  racial  standpoint,  the  significant  marriage  rate  of  any 
group  of  women  is  the  percentage  that  have  married  before 
the  end  of  the  childbearing  period.  Classes  graduating  later 
than  1888  are  therefore  not  included,  and  the  record  shows  the 
marital  status  in  the  fall  of  191 2.  In  compiling  these  data 
deceased  members  and  the  few  lost  from  record  are  of  course 
omitted. 

In  the  foregoing  study  care  was  taken  to  distinguish  as  to 
when  the  marriage  took  place.  Obviously  marriages  with  the 
women  at  45  or  over  being  sterile  must  not  be  counted  where  it  is 
the  fecundity  of  the  marriage  that  is  being  studied.  The  reader 
is  warned  therefore  to  make  any  necessary  correction  for  this 
factor  in  the  studies  to  follow  in  some  of  which  unfortimately 
care  has  not  been  taken  to  make  the  necessary  distinction. 

Turn  to  Mount  Holyoke  College,  the  oldest  of  the  great 
institutions  for  the  higher  education  of  women  in  this  country. 
Professor  Amy  Hewes  has  collected  the  following  data : 


Decade  of  graduation 

Per  cent  remai 
14.6 

ning 

single 

Per  cent  marrying 

1842-1849 

85-4 

1850-1859 

24- 5 

75-5 

1860-1869 

39-1 

60.9 

1870-1879 

40.6 

59-4 

1880-1889 

42.4 

57.6 

I 890- I 89 2 

50.0 

50.0 

Bryn  Mawr  College,  between  1888  and  1900,  graduated  376 
girls,  of  whom  165,  or  43.9%,  had  married  up  to  January  i, 

1913- 

Studying  the  Vassar  College  graduates  between  1867  and 
1892,  Robert  J.  Sprague  found  that  509  of  the  total  of  959  had 
married,  leaving  47%  celibate.    Adding  the  classes  up  to  1900, 


INCREASING  MARRIAGES  OF  SUPERIORS      241 

it  was  found  that  less  than  half  of  the  total  number  of  gradu- 
ates of  the  institution  had  married. 

Remembering  what  a  selected  group  of  young  women  go  to 
college,  the  eugenist  can  hardly  help  suspecting  that  the  wom- 
en's colleges  of  the  United  States,  as  at  present  conducted,  are 
from  his  point  of  view  doing  great  harm  to  the  race.  This 
suspicion  becomes  a  certainty,  as  one  investigation  after  another 
shows  the  same  results.  Statistics  compiled  on  marriages 
among  college  women  (1901)  showed  that: 

45%  of  college  women  marry  before  the  age  of  40. 

90%  of  all  United  States  women  marry  before  the  age  of  40. 

96%  of  Arkansas  women  marry  before  the  age  of  40. 

80%  of  Massachusetts  women  marry  before  the  age  of  40. 
In  Massachusetts,  it  is  further  to  be  noted,  30%  of  all  women 
have  married  at  the  age  when  college  women  are  just  graduating. 

It  has,  moreover,  been  demonstrated  that  the  women  who 
belong  to  Phi  Beta  Kappa  and  other  honor  societies,  and  there- 
fore represent  a  second  selection  from  an  already  selected  class, 
have  a  lower  marriage  rate  than  college  women  in  general. 

In  reply  to  such  facts,  the  eugenist  is  often  told  that  the  col- 
lege graduates  marry  as  often  and  as  early  as  the  other  members 
of  their  families.  We  are  comparing  conditions  that  can  not 
properly  be  compared,  we  are  informed,  when  we  match  the 
college  woman's  marriage  rate  with  that  of  a  non-college  woman 
who  comes  from  a  lower  level  of  society. 

But  the  facts  will  not  bear  out  this  apology.  Miss  M.  R. 
Smith's  statistics  ^  from  the  data  of  the  Collegiate  Alumnae 
show  the  true  situation.  The  average  age  at  marriage  was 
found  to  be  for 

Years 

College  women 26 . 3 

Their  sisters 24 . 2 

Their  cousins • 24 . 7 

Their  friends 24 . 2 

and  the  age  distribution  of  those  married  was  as  follows: 

^  Smith,  Mary  Roberts,  "Statistics  of  College  and  Non-college  Women,"  Quar- 
terly Pubs,  of  the  American  Statistical  Assn.,  VII,  p.  i  fif.,  igoo. 


242 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


Percentage  of  married  College 

Under  23  years 8.6 

23-32  years 83 . 2 

33  and  over 8.0 


Equivalent 
non-college 

30.1 

64.9 


If  these  differences  did  not  bring  about  any  change  in  the 
birth-rate,  they  could  be  neglected.     A  slight  sacrifice  might 


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79  80  8IK-83  64-8>8687e8  89-«>9l  ■9^■93■94■9S■96•97•98•99•00■0l• 
Wellesley  Graduates  and  Non-qraduaies 

Fig.  36. — Graph  showing  at  a  glance  the  record  of  the  student  body  in  regard  to 
marriage  and  birth  rates,  during  the  years  indicated.  Statistics  for  the  latest  years 
have  not  been  compiled,  because  it  is  obvious  that  girls  who  agrduated  during  the 
last  fifteen  years  still  have  a  chance  to  marry  and  become  mothers. 

even  be  made,  for  the  sake  of  having  mothers  better  prepared. 
But  taken  in  connection  with  the  birth-rate  figures  which  we 
shall  present  in  the  next  chapter,  they  form  a  serious  indictment 
against  the  women's  colleges  of  the  United  States. 

Such  conditions  are  not  wholly  confined  to  women's  colleges, 
or  to  any  one  geographical  area.  Miss  Helen  D.  Murphey  has 
compiled  the  statistics  for  Washington  Seminary,  in  Washing- 
ton, Pennsylvania,  a  secondary  school  for  women,  founded  in 
1837.  The  marriage  rate  among  the  graduates  of  this  institu- 
tion has  steadily  declined,  as  is  shown  in  the  following  table 
where  the  records  are  considered  by  decades: 


INCREASING  MARRIAGES  OF  SUPERIORS      243 

'45        'SS        '65       '75        '85        '95        '00 

Per  cent,  married 78        74        67        72        59        57        55 

Per  cent,  who  have  gone  into 
other  occupations  than  home- 
making  20        13        12        19        30        30        39 

A  graph,  plotted  to  show  Jiow  soon  after  graduation  these 
girls  have  married,  demonstrates  that  the  greatest  number  of 
them  wed  five  or  six  years  after  receiving  their  diplomas,  but 
that  the  number  of  those  marrying  10  years  afterward  is  not 
very  much  less  than  that  of  the  girls  who  become  brides  in  the 
first  or  second  year  after  graduation  (see  Fig.  35). 

C.  S.  Castle's  investigation  ^  of  the  ages  at  which  eminent 
women  of  various  periods  have  married,  is  interesting  in  this 
connection,  in  spite  of  the  small  number  of  individuals  with 
which  it  deals: 

Century           Average  age  Range            Number  of  cases 

12  16.2  8-30  S 

13  16.6  12-29  S 

14  13.8  6-18  II 

15  17.6  13-26  20 

16  21.7  12-50  28 

17  20.0  13-43  30 

18  23.1  13-53  127 

19  26.2  15-67  189 

Women  in  coeducational  colleges,  particularly  the  great  uni- 
versities of  the  west,  can  not  be  compared  without  corrections 
with  the  women  of  the  eastern  separate  colleges,  because  they 
represent  different  family  and  environmental  selection.  Their 
record  none  the  less  deserves  careful  study.  Miss  Shinn  '^  calcu- 
lated the  marriage  rate  of  college  women  as  follows,  assuming 
graduation  at  the  age  of  22: 

Women  over  Coeducaled  Separate 

25 38.1  29.6 

30 49-7  40.1 

35 53-6  46.6 

40 569  51-8 

*  "Statistics  of  Eminent  Women,"  Pop.  Sci.  Mo.,  June,  1913. 

*  "Marriage  of  College  Women,"  Century  Magazine,  Oct.,  1895. 


244  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

She  has  shown  that  only  a  part  of  this  discrepancy  is 
attributable  to  the  geographic  difference,  some  of  it  is  the 
effect  of  lack  of  co-education.  Some  of  it  is  also  attributable 
to  the  type  of  education. 

The  marriage  rate  of  women  graduates  of  Iowa  State  Col- 
lege ^  is  as  follows:  * 

1872-81 95.8 

1882-91 62.5 

1892-01 71.2 

1902-06 69.0 

Study  of  the  alumni  register  of  Oberlin,^  one  of  the  oldest 
coeducational  institutions,  shows  that  the  marriage  rate  of 
women  graduates,  1884-1905,  was  65.2%,  only  34.8%  of  them 
remaining  unmarried.  If  the  later  period,  1 890-1 905,  alone  is 
taken,  only  55.2%  of  the  girls  have  married.  The  figures  for  the 
last  few  classes  in  this  period  are  probably  not  complete. 

At  Kansas  State  Agricultural  College,  1885-1905,  67.6%  of 
the  women  graduates  have  married.  At  Ohio  State  University 
in  the  same  period,  the  percentage  is  only  54.0.  Wisconsin  uni- 
versity, 1870-1905,  shows  a  percentage  of  51.8,  the  figures  for 
the  last  five  years  of  that  period  being: 


1901 33 

1902 52 

1903 45 

1904 32 

1905 37 


From  alimfini  records  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  54%  of  the 
women,  1880-1905,  are  found  to  be  married. 

It  is  difficult  to  discuss  these  figures  without  extensive  study 
of  each  case.  But  that  only  53%  of  the  women  graduates  of 
three  great  universities  like  Illinois,  Ohio  and  Wisconsin,  should 
be  married,  10  years  after  graduation,  indicates  that  something 
is  wrong, 

^  Blumer,  J.  O.,  in  Journal  of  Heredity,  VIII,  p.  217,  May,  1917. 
^  The  statistics  of  this  and  the  following  middle  west  universities  were  presented 
by  Paul  Popenoe  in  the  Journal  of  Heredity,  VIII,  pp.  43-45- 


INCREASING  MARRIAGES  OF  SUPERIORS      245 

In  most  cases  it  is  not  possible  to  tell,  from  the  alumni  records 
of  the  above  colleges,  whether  the  male  graduates  are  or  are  not 
married.  But  the  class  lists  of  Harvard  and  Yale  have  recently 
been  carefully  studied  by  John  C.  Phillips,^  who  finds  that  in  the 
period  1851-1890  74%  of  the  Harvard  graduates  and  78%  of 
the  Yale  graduates  married.  In  that  period,  he  found,  the  age 
of  marriage  has  advanced  only  about  i  year,  from  a  Uttle  over 
30  to  just  about  31.  This  is  a  much  higher  rate  than  that  of 
college  women. 

Statistics  from  Stanford  University  ^  offer  an  interesting  com- 
parison because  they  are  available  for  both  men  and  women.  Of 
670  male  graduates,  classes  1892  to  1900,  inclusive,  490  or  73.2% 
were  reported  as  married  in  1910.  Of  330  women,  160  or 
48.5%  were  married.  These  figures  are  not  complete,  as  some 
of  the  graduates  in  the  later  classes  must  have  married  since 
1910. 

The  conditions  existing  at  Stanford  are  likewise  found  at 
Syracuse,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  continent.  Here,  as  H.  J. 
Banker  has  shown,^  the  men  graduates  marry  most  frequently 
4.5  years  after  taking  their  degrees,  and  the  women  4.7  years. 
Of  the  women  57%  marry,  of  the  men  81%.  The  women  marry 
at  the  average  age  of  27.7  years  and  the  men  at  28.8.  Less  than 
one-fourth  of  the  marrying  men  married  women  within  the  col- 
lege. The  last  five  decades  he  studied  show  a  steady  decrease 
in  the  number  of  women  graduates  who  marry,  while  the  men  are 
much  more  constant.    His  figures  are: 

Per  cent  of  women 

graduates 

married 

87 

87 

81 

55 
48 

*  Harvard  Graduates'  Magazine,  XXV,  No.  97,  pp.  25-34,  September,  1916. 

*  Popenoe,  Paul,  "Stanford's  Marriage-Rate,"  Journal  of  Heredity,  VIII,  p.  170- 

173- 

'  Banker,  Howard  J.,  "Coeducation  and  Eugenics,"  Journal  of  Heredity,  VIII, 
pp.  2o§-3i4,  May,  1917. 


Per  cent  of  men 

Decade 

graduates 

married 

1852-61 

81 

1862-71 

87 

1872-81 

90 

1882-91 

84 

1892-01 

73 

246  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

C.  B.  Davenport,  looking  at  the  record  of  his  own  classmates 
at  Harvard,  found  ^  in  1909  that  among  the  328  original  mem- 
bers there  were  287  surviving,  of  whom  nearly  a  third  (31%) 
had  never  married. 

"Of  these  [287J,"  he  continues,  "26  were  in  'Who's  Who  in 
America?'  We  should  expect,  were  success  in  professional  life 
promoted  by  bachelorship,  to  find  something  over  a  third  of 
those  in  Who's  Who  to  be  unmarried.  Actually  all  but  two,  or 
less  than  8%,  were  married,  and  one  of  these  has  since  married. 
The  only  still  unmarried  man  was  a  temporary  member  of  the 
class  and  is  an  artist  who  has  resided  for  a  large  part  of  the 
time  in  Europe.  There  is,  therefore,  no  reason  to  believe  that 
bachelorship  favors  professional  success." 

Particularly  pernicious  in  tending  to  prevent  marriage  is  the 
influence  of  certain  professional  schools,  some  of  which  have  come 
to  require  a  college  degree  for  entrance.  In  such  a  case  the  aspir- 
ing physician,  for  example,  can  hardly  hope  to  obtain  a  license 
to  practice  until  he  has  reached  the  age  of  27  since  4  years  are 
required  in  Medical  College  and  i  year  in  a  hospital.  His  mar- 
riage must  in  almost  every  case  be  postponed  until  a  number  of 
years  after  that  of  the  young  men  of  his  own  class  who  have 
followed  business  careers. 

This  brief  survey  is  enough  to  prove  that  the  best  educated 
young  women  (and  to  a  less  extent  yoimg  men)  of  the  United 
States,  who  for  many  reasons  may  be  considered  superior,  are  in 
many  cases  avoiding  marriage  altogether,  and  in  other  cases 
postponing  it  longer  than  is  desirable.  The  women  in  the 
separate  colleges  of  the  East  have  the  worst  record  in  this  re- 
spect, but  that  of  the  women  graduates  of  some  of  the  coeduca- 
tional schools  leaves  much  to  be  desired. 

It  is  difiicult  to  separate  the  causes  which  result  in  a  post- 
ponement of  marriage,  from  those  that  result  in  a  total  avoidance 
of  marriage.  To  a  large  extent  the  causes  are  the  same,  and  the 
result  differs  only  in  degree.  The  effect  of  absolute  celibacy  of 
superior  people,  from  a  eugenic  point  of  view,  is  of  course  obvious 
to  all,  but  the  racial  effect  of  postponement  of  marriage,  even  for 

'  Eugenics:  Twelve  University  Lectures,  p.  9,  New  York,  1914. 


INCREASING  MARRIAGES  OF  SUPERIORS      247 

a  few  years,  is  not  always  so  clearly  realized.    The  diagram  in 
Fig.  36  may  give  a  clearer  appreciation  of  this  situation. 

Francis  Galton  dearly  perceived  the  importance  of  this  point, 
and  attempted  in  several  ways  to  arrive  at  a  just  idea  of  it. 
One  of  the  most  striking  of  his  investigations  is  based  on  Dr. 
Duncan's  statistics  from  a  maternity  hospital.  Dividing  the 
mothers  into  five-year  groups,  according  to  their  age,  and  stating 
the  median  age  of  the  group  for  the  sake  of  simplicity,  instead  of 
giving  the  limits,  he  arrived  at  the  following  table: 


[ge  of  mother  at 

Approximate  average 

her  marriage 

fertility 

17 

Q.cxj — 6  X  1.5 

22 

7.50—5x1.5 

27 

6 .  00 — ^4  X  1 . 5 

32 

4-50— 3x1.5 

which  shows  that  the  relative  fertility  of  mothers  married  at  the 
ages  of  17,  22,  27  and  32,  respectively,  is  as  6,  5,  4,  and  3  approx- 
imately. 

"The  increase  in  population  by  a  habit  of  early  marriages," 
he  adds,  "is  further  augmented  by  the  greater  rapidity  with 
which  the  generations  follow  each  other.  By  the  joint  effect  of 
these  two  causes,  a  large  effect  is  in  time  produced." 

Certainly  the  object  of  eugenics  is  not  to  merely  increase 
human  numbers.  Quality  is  more  important  than  quantity 
in  a  birth-rate.  But  it  must  be  evident  that  other  things 
being  equal,  a  group  which  marries  early  will,  after  a  num- 
ber of  generations,  supplant  a  group  which  marries  even  a 
few  years  later.  And  there  is  abundant  evidence  to  show  that 
some  of  the  best  elements  of  the  old,  white,  American  race  are 
being  rapidly  eliminated  from  the  population  of  America,  be- 
cause of  postponement  or  avoidance  of  marriage. 

Taking  the  men  alone,  we  find  that  failure  to  marry  may  often 
be  ascribed  to  one  of  the  following  reasons: 

1.  The  cultivation  of  a  taste  for  sexual  variety  and  a  conse- 
quent unwillingness  to  submit  to  the  restraints  of  marriage. 

2.  Pessimism  in  regard  to  women  from  premature  or  un- 
fortunate sex  experiences. 


248  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

3.  Infection  by  venereal  disease. 

4.  Deficiency  in  normal  sexual  feeling,  or  perversion. 

5.  Deficiency  of  one  kind  or  another,  physical  or  mental, 
causing  difficulty  in  getting  an  acceptable  mate. 

The  persons  in  groups  4  and  5  certainly  and  in  groups  i,  2, 
and  3  probably  to  a  less  extent,  are  inferior,  and  their  celibacy 
is  an  advantage  to  the  race,  rather  than  a  disadvantage,  from  a 
eugenic  point  of  view.  Their  inferiority  is  in  part  the  result  of 
bad  environment.  But  since  innate  inferiority  is  so  frequently  a 
large  factor,  the  bad  environment  often  being  experienced  only 
because  the  nature  was  inferior  to  start  with,  the  average  of  the 
group  as  a  whole  must  be  considered  innately  inferior. 

Then  there  are  among  celibate  men  two  other  classes,  largely 
superior  by  nature: 

6.  Those  who  seek  some  other  end  so  ardently  that  they  will 
not  make  the  necessary  sacrifice  in  money  and  freedom,  in  order 
to  marry. 

7.  Those  whose  likelihood  of  early  marriage  is  reduced  by  a 
prolonged  education  and  apprenticeship.  Prolongation  of  the 
celibate  period  often  results  in  life-long  celibacy. 

Some  of  the  most  important  means  of  remedying  the  above 
conditions,  in  so  far  as  they  are  dysgenic,  can  be  grouped  under 
three  general  heads: 

1.  Try  to  lead  all  young  men  to  avoid  a  loose  sexual  life  and 
venereal  disease.  A  general  effort  will  be  heeded  more  by  the 
superior  than  by  the  inferior. 

2.  Hold  up  the  role  of  husband  and  father  as  particularly 
honorable,  and  proclaim  its  shirking,  without  adequate  cause,  as 
dishonorable.  Depict  it  as  a  happier  and  healthier  state  than 
celibacy  or  pseudo-celibacy.  For  a  man  to  say  he  has  never 
met  a  girl  he  can  love  simply  means  he  has  not  diligently  sought 
one,  or  else  he  has  a  deficient  emotional  equipment;  for  there  are 
many,  surprisingly  many,  estimable,  attractive,  immarried 
women. 

3.  Cease  prolonging  the  educational  period  past  the  early 
twenties.  It  is  time  to  call  a  halt  on  the  schools  and  universities, 
whose  constant  lengthening  of  the  educational  period  will  result 


INCREASING  MARRIAGES  OF  SUPERIORS      249 

in  a  serious  loss  to  the  race.  External  circumstances  of  an  educa- 
tional nature  should  not  be  allowed  to  force  a  young  man  to 
postpone  his  marriage  past  the  age  of  25.  This  means  that 
students  must  be  allowed  to  specialize  earlier.  If  there  is  need 
of  limiting  the  number  of  candidates,  competitive  entrance 
examinations  may  be  arranged  on  some  rational  basis.  Superior 
young  men  should  marry,  even  at  some  cost  to  their  early 
efficiency.  The  high  efficiency  of  any  profession  can  be  more 
safely  kept  up  by  demanding  a  minimum  amount  of  continua- 
tion work  in  afternoon,  evening,  or  seasonal  classes,  laboratories, 
or  clinics.  No  more  graduate  fellowships  should  be  established 
until  those  now  existing  carry  a  stipend  adequate  for  marriage. 
Those  which  already  carry  larger  stipends  should  not  be  limited 
to  bachelors,  as  are  the  most  valuable  awards  at  Princeton,  the 
ten  yearly  Proctor  fellowships  of  $1,000  each. 

The  causes  of  the  remarkable  failure  of  college  women  to 
marry  can  not  be  exhaustively  investigated  here,  but  for  the 
purposes  of  eugenics  they  may  be  roughly  classified  as  imavoid- 
able  and  avoidable.  Under  the  first  heading  must  be  placed 
those  girls  who  are  inherently  unmarriageable,  either  because 
of  physical  defect  or,  more  frequently,  mental  defect, — most 
often  an  over-development  of  intellect  at  the  expense  of  the 
emotions,  which  makes  a  girl  either  unattractive  to  men,  or 
incUnes  her  toward  a  ceUbate  career  and  away  from  marriage  and 
motherhood.  Opinions  differ  as  to  the  proportion  of  college  girls 
who  are  inherently  immarriageable.  Anyone  who  has  been 
much  among  them  will  testify  that  a  large  proportion  of  them 
are  not  inherently  unmarriageable,  however,  and  their  celibacy 
for  the  most  part  must  be  classified  as  avoidable.  Their  failure 
to  marry  may  be  because 

(i)  They  desire  not  to  marry,  due  to  a  preference  for  a  career, 
or  development  of  a  cynical  attitude  toward  men  and  matri- 
mony, due  to  a  faulty  education,  or 

(2)  They  desire  to  marry,  but  do  not,  for  a  variety  of  reasons 
such  as: 

(a)  They  are  educated  for  careers,  such  as  school-teaching, 
where  they  have  little  opportunity  to  meet  men. 


250  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

(b)  Their  education  makes  them  less  desirable  mates 
than  girls  who  have  had  some  training  along  the  lines  of 
home-making  and  mothercraft. 

(c)  They  have  remained  in  partial  segregation  until  past  the 
age  when  they  are  physically  most  attractive,  and  when  the 
other  girls  of  their  age  are  marrying. 

(d)  Due  to  their  own  education,  they  demand  on  the  part  of 
suitors  a  higher  degree  of  education  than  the  young  men  of  their 
acquaintance  possess.  A  girl  of  this  type  wants  to  marry  but 
desires  a  man  who  is  educationally  her  equal  or  superior.  As 
men  of  such  type  are  relatively  rare,  her  chances  of  marriage 
are  reduced. 

(e)  Their  experience  in  college  makes  them  desire  a  standard  of 
living  higher  than  that  of  their  own  families  or  of  the  men  among 
whom  they  were  brought  up.  They  become  resistant  to  the 
suit  of  men  who  are  of  ordinary  economic  status.  While  waiting 
for  the  appearance  of  a  suitor  who  is  above  the  average  in  both 
intelligence  and  wealth,  they  pass  the  marriageable  age. 

(f)  They  are  better  educated  than  the  young  men  of  their 
acquaintance,  and  the  latter  are  afraid  of  them.  Some  young 
men  dislike  to  marry  girls  who  know  more  than  they  do,  except 
in  the  distinctively  feminine  fields. 

These  and  various  similar  causes  help  to  lower  the  marriage- 
rate  of  college  women  and  to  account  for  the  large  number  of 
aliunnae  who  desire  to  marry  but  are  unable  to  do  so.  In  the 
interest  of  eugenics,  the  various  difficulties  must  be  met  in 
appropriate  ways. 

Marriage  is  not  desirable  for  those  who  are  eugenically  in- 
ferior, from  weak  constitutions,  defective  sexuality,  or  inherent 
mental  deficiency.  But  beyond  these  groups  of  women  are  the 
much  larger  groups  of  celibates  who  are  distinctly  superior,  and 
whose  chances  of  marriage  have  been  reduced  for  one  of  the 
reasons  mentioned  above  or  through  living  in  cities  with  an 
undue  proportion  of  female  residents.  Then  there  are,  besides 
these,  superior  women  who,  because  they  are  brought  up  in 
families  without  brothers  or  brothers'  friends,  are  so  unnaturally 
shy  that  they  are  unable  to  become  friendly  with  men,  however 


INCREASING  MARRIAGES  OF  SUPERIORS      251 

much  they  may  care  to.  It  is  evident  that  life  in  a  separate 
college  for  women  often  intensifies  this  defect.  There  are  still 
other  women  who  repel  men  by  a  manner  of  extreme  self- 
repression  and  coldness,  sometimes  the  result  of  parents'  or 
teachers'  over-zealous  efforts  to  inculcate  modesty  and  reserve, 
traits  valuable  in  due  degree  but  harmful  in  excess. 

When  will  educators  learn  that  the  education  of  the  emotions 
is  as  important  as  that  of  the  intellect?  When  will  the  schools 
awake  to  the  fact  that  a  large  part  of  life  consists  in  relations 
with  other  human  beings,  and  that  much  of  their  educational 
effort  is  absolutely  valueless,  or  detrimental,  to  success  in  the 
fundamentally  necessary  practice  of  dealing  with  other  individ- 
uals which  is  imposed  on  every  one?  Many  a  college  girl  of  the 
finest  innate  qualities,  who  sincerely  desires  to  enter  matri- 
mony, is  unable  to  find  a  husband  of  her  own  class,  simply  be- 
cause she  has  been  rendered  so  cold  and  unattractive,  so  over- 
stuffed intellectually  and  starved  emotionally,  that  a  typical 
man  does  not  desire  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  life  in  her  company. 
The  same  indictment  applies  in  a  less  degree  to  men.  It  is 
generally  believed  that  an  only  child  is  frequently  to  be  found 
in  this  class. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  true — perhaps  more  important 
— that  many  innately  superior  young  men  are  rejected,  because 
of  their  manner  of  life.  Superior  young  men  should  be  induced 
to  keep  their  physical  records  clean,  in  order  that  they  may  not 
suffer  the  severe  depreciation  which  they  would  otherwise  sus- 
tain in  the  eyes  of  superior  women. 

But  in  efforts  to  teach  chastity,  sex  itself  must  not  be  made  to 
appear  an  evil  thing.  This  is  a  grave  mistake  and  all  too  common 
since  the  rise  of  the  sex-hygiene  movement.  Undoubtedly  a 
considerable  amount  of  the  celibacy  in  sensitive  women  may  be 
traced  to  ill-balanced  mothers  and  teachers  who,  in  word  and 
attitude,  build  up  an  impression  that  sex  is  indecent  and  bestial, 
and  engender  in  general  a  damaging  suspicion  of  men.^ 

»Cf.  Gould,  Miriam  C,  "The  Psychological  Influence  upon  Adolescent  Girls 
of  the  Knowledge  of  Prostitution  and  Venereal  Disease,"  Social  Hygiene,  Vol.  II, 
pp.  191-207,  April,  1916.    This  interesting  and  important  study  of  the  reactions 


252  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Level  heads  are  necessary  in  the  sex  ethics  campaign. 
Whereas  the  venereal  diseases  will  probably,  with  a  continua- 
tion of  present  progress  in  treatment  and  prophylaxis,  be  brought 
under  control  in  the  course  of  a  century,  the  problem  of  differen- 
tial mating  will  exist  as  long  as  the  race  does,  which  can  hardly 
be  less  than  tens  of  millions  of  years.  Lurid  presentation,  by 
drama,  novel,  or  magazine-story,  of  dramatic  and  highly- 
colored  individual  sex  histories,  is  to  be  avoided.  These  often 
impress  an  abnormal  situation  on  sensitive  girls  so  strongly  that 
aversion  to  marriage,  or  sex  antagonism,  is  aroused.  Every 
effort  should  be  made  to  permeate  art — dramatic,  plastic,  or 
Uterary — with  the  highest  ideals  of  sex  and  parenthood.  A 
glorification  of  motherhood  and  fatherhood  in  these  ways  would 
have  a  portentous  influence  on  public  opinion, 

"The  true,  intimate  chronicle  of  an  everyday  married  life 
has  not  been  written.  Here  is  a  theme  for  genius;  for  only  genius 
can  divine  and  reveal  the  beauty,  the  pathos,  and  the  wonder  of  ' 
the  normal  or  the  commonplace.  A  feHcitous  marriage  has  its 
comedy,  its  complexities,  its  element,  too,  of  tragedy  and  grief, 
as  well  as  its  serenity  and  fealty.  Matrimony,  whether  the  pair 
fare  well  or  ill,  is  always  a  great  adventure,  a  play  of  deep  in- 
stincts and  powerful  emotions,  a  drama  of  two  psyches.  Every 
marriage  provides  a  theme  for  the  literary  artist.  No  lives  are 
free  from  enigmas."  ^ 

More  "temperance"  in  work  would  probably  promote  mar- 
riage of  able  and  ambitious  young  people.  Walter  Gallichan 
complains  that  "we  do  not  even  recognize  love  as  a  finer  passion 
than  money  greed.  It  is  a  kind  of  luxury,  or  pleasant  pastime, 
for  the  sentimentally  minded.  Love  is  so  undervalued  as  a 
source  of  happiness,  a  means  of  grace,  and  a  completion  of  being, 
that  many  men  would  sooner  work  to  keep  a  motor  car  than  to 
marry." 

Men  should  be  taught  greater  respect  for  the  individuality 

of  50  girls  reveals  that  present  methods  or  indifference  to  the  need  of  reasonable 
methods  of  teaching  sex-hygiene  are  responsible  for  "a  large  percentage  of  harmful 
results,  such  as  conditions  bordering  on  neurasthenia,  melancholia,  p>essimism  and 
sex  antagonism." 

^Gallichan,  Walter  M.,  The  Great  Unmarried,  New  York,  1916. 


INCREASING  MARRIAGES  OF  SUPERIORS      253 

of  women,  so  that  no  high-minded  girl  will  shrink  from  marriage 
with  the  idea  that  it  means  a  surrender  of  her  personality  and  a 
state  of  domestic  servitude.  A  more  discriminating  idea  of 
sex-equality  is  desirable,  and  a  recognition  by  men  that  women 
are  not  necessarily  creatures  of  inferior  mentality.  It  would 
be  an  advantage  if  men's  education  included  some  instruction 
along  these  lines.  It  would  be  a  great  gain,  also  if  intelligent 
women  had  more  knowledge  of  domestic  economy  and  mother- 
craft,  because  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  well-educated  girl  is 
handicapped  in  seeking  a  mate  is  the  belief  all  too  frequently 
well  founded  of  many  young  men  that  she  is  a  luxurj^  which  he 
can  not  afford. 

Higher  education  in  general  needs  to  be  reoriented.  It  has  too 
much  glorified  individualism,  and  put  a  premium  on  "white 
collar"  work.  The  trend  toward  industrial  education  will  help 
to  correct  this  situation. 

Professor  Sprague  ^  points  out  another  very  important  fault, 
when  he  says:  ''More  strong  men  are  needed  on  the  staffs  of 
public  schools  and  women's  colleges,  and  in  all  of  these  institu- 
tions more  married  instructors  of  both  sexes  are  desirable.  The 
catalogue  of  one  of  the  [women's]  colleges  referred  to  above  shows 
114  professors  and  instructors,  of  whom  100  are  women,  of 
whom  only  two  have  ever  married.  Is  it  to  be  expected  that  the 
curriculum  created  by  such  a  staff  would  idealize  and  prepare 
for  family  and  home  life  as  the  greatest  work  of  the  world  and 
the  highest  goal  of  woman,  and  teach  race  survival  as  a  patriotic 
duty?  Or,  would  it  be  expected  that  these  bachelor  staffs  would 
glorify  the  independent  vocation  and  life  for  women  and  create 
employment  bureaus  to  enable  their  graduates  to  get  into  the 
oflSces,  schools  and  other  lucrative  jobs?  The  latter  seems  to  be 
what  occurs." 

Increase  of  opportunity  for  superior  young  people  to  meet 
each  other,  as  discussed  in  our  chapter  on  sexual  selection,  will 
play  a  very  large  part  in  raising  the  marriage  rate.    And  finally, 

^  Sprague,  Robert  J.,  "Education  and  Race  Suicide,"  Journal  of  Heredity,  Vol. 
VI,  pp.  158  fif.,  April,  1915.  Many  of  the  statistics  of  women's  colleges,  cited  in  the 
first  part  of  this  chapter,  are  from  Dr.  Sprague's  paper. 


254  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

the  delayed  or  avoided  marriage  of  the  intellectual  classes  is  in 
large  part  a  reflection  of  public  opinion,  which  has  wrongly  rep- 
resented other  things  as  being  more  worth  while  than  marriage. 

"The  promotion  of  marriage  in  early  adult  life,  as  a  part  of 
social  hygiene,  must  begin  with  a  new  canonization  of  marriage," 
Mr.  Gallichan  declares.  "  This  is  equally  the  task  of  the  fervent 
poet  and  the  scientific  thinker,  whose  respective  labors  for  hu- 
manity are  never  at  variance  in  essentials.  .  .  .  The  sentiment 
for  marriage  can  be  deepened  by  a  rational  understanding  of  the 
passion  that  attracts  and  unites  the  sexes.  We  need  an  apotheo- 
sis of  conjugal  love  as  a  basis  for  a  new  appreciation  of  marriage. 
Reverence  for  love  should  be  fostered  from  the  outset  of  the 
adolescent  period  by  parents  and  pedagogues." 

If,  in  addition  to  this  "diffusion  of  healthier  views  of  the  con- 
jugal relation,"  some  of  the  economic  changes  suggested  in 
later  chapters  are  put  in  effect,  it  seems  probable  that  the 
present  racially  disastrous  tendency  of  the  most  superior 
young  men  and  women  to  postpone  or  avoid  marriage  would 
be  checked. 


CHAPTER  Xm 

INCREASE    OF    THE   BDITH-RATE    OF    THE 
SUPERIOR 

Imagine  200  babies  born  to  parents  of  native  stock  in  the 
United  States.  On  the  average,  103  of  them  will  be  boys  and 
97  girls.  By  the  time  the  girls  reach  a  marriageable  age  (say 
20  years),  at  least  19  will  have  died,  leaving  78  possible  wives, 
on  whom  the  duty  of  perpetuating  that  section  of  the  race  de- 
pends. 

We  said  "  Possible  "  wives,  not  probable;  for  not  all  will  marry. 
It  is  difficult  to  say  just  how  many  will  become  wives,  but 
Robert  J.  Sprague  has  reported  on  several  investigations  that 
illuminate  the  point. 

In  a  selected  New  England  village  in  1890,  he  says,  "  there  were 
forty  marriageable  girls  between  the  ages  of  20  and  35.  To-day 
thirty-two  of  these  are  married,  20  per  cent,  are  spinsters. 

"An  investigation  of  260  families  of  the  Massachusetts  Agri- 
cultural College  students  shows  that  out  of  832  women  over  40 
years  of  age  755  or  91  per  cent,  have  married,  leaving  only  9 
per  cent,  spinsters.  This  and  other  observations  indicate  that 
the  daughters  of  farmers  marry  more  generally  than  those  of 
some  other  classes. 

"In  sixty-nine  (reporting)  families  represented  by  the  fresh- 
man class  of  Amherst  College  (1914)  there  are  229  mothers  and 
aunts  over  40  years  of  age,  of  whom  186  or  81  per  cent,  have 
already  married. 

"It  would  seem  safe  to  conclude  that  about  15  per  cent, 
of  native  women  in  general  American  society  do  not  marry  dur- 
ing the  child-bearing  period."  Deducting  15  per  cent,  from  the 
78  possible  wives  leaves  sixty-six  probable  wives.  Now  among 
the  native  wives  of  Massachusetts  20  per  cent,  do  not  produce 
children,  and  deducting  these  thirteen  childless  ones  from  the 


2S6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

sixty-six  probable  wives  leaves  fifty-three  probable,  married, 
child-bearing  women,  who  must  be  depended  on  to  reproduce  the 
original  200  individuals  with  whom  we  began  this  chapter. 
That  means  that  each  woman  who  demonstrates  ability  to  bear 
offspring  must  bear  3,7  children.  This  it  must  be  noted,  is  a 
minimum  number,  for  no  account  has  been  taken  of  those  who, 
through  some  defect  or  disease  developed  late  in  life,  become  un- 
marriageable.  In  general,  unless  every  married  woman  brings 
three  children  to  maturity,  the  race  will  not  even  hold  its  own 
in  numbers.  And  this  means  that  each  woman  must  bear  four 
children,  since  not  all  the  children  born  will  live.  If  the  married 
women  of  the  country  bear  fewer  than  nearly  four  children  each, 
the  race  is  in  danger  of  losing  ground. 

Such  a  statement  ought  to  strike  the  reader  as  one  of  grave 
importance;  but  we  labor  under  no  delusion  that  it  will  do  so. 
For  we  are  painfully  aware  that  the  bugaboo  of  the  declining 
birth-rate  of  superior  people  has  been  raised  so  often  in  late  years, 
that  it  has  beome  stale  by  repetition.  It  no  longer  causes  any 
alarm.  The  country  is  filled  with  sincere  but  mentally  short- 
sighted individuals,  who  are  constantly  ready  to  vociferate  that 
numbers  are  no  very  desirable  thing  in  a  birth-rate;  that  quality 
is  wanted,  not  quantity;  that  a  few  children  given  ideal  care  are 
of  much  more  value  to  the  state  and  the  race  than  are  many 
children,  who  can  not  receive  this  attention. 

And  this  attitude  toward  the  subject,  we  venture  to  assert,  is  a 
graver  peril  to  the  race  than  is  the  declining  birth-rate  itself. 
For  there  is  enough  truth  in  it  to  make  it  plausible,  and  to 
separate  the  truth  from  the  dangerous  untruth  it  contains,  and 
to  make  the  bulk  of  the  population  see  the  distinction,  is  a  task 
which  will  tax  every  energy  of  the  eugenist. 

Unfortunately,  this  is  not  a  case  of  mere  difference  of  opinion 
between  men;  it  is  a  case  of  antagonism  between  men  and 
nature.  If  a  race  h3T)notize  itself  into  thinking  that  its  views 
about  race  suicide  are  superior  to  nature's  views,  it  may  make 
its  own  end  a  little  less  painful;  but  it  will  not  postpone  that 
end  for  a  single  minute.  The  contest  is  to  the  strong,  and  al- 
though numbers  are  not  the  most  important  element  in  strength. 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     257 

it  is  very  certain  that  a  race  made  up  of  families  containing  one 
child  each  will  not  be  the  survivor  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 

The  idea,  therefore,  that  race  suicide  and  general  limitation  of 
births  to  the  irreducible  minimum,  can  be  effectively  justified  by 
any  conceivable  appeal  to  economic  or  sociological  factors,  is  a 
mistake  which  will  eventually  bring  about  the  extinction  of  the 
people  making  it. 

This  statement  must  not  be  interpreted  wrongly.  Certainly 
we  would  not  argue  that  a  high  birth-rate  in  itself  is  necessarily  a 
desirable  thing.  It  is  not  the  object  of  eugenics  to  achieve  as 
big  a  population  as  possible,  regardless  of  quality.  But  in  the 
last  analysis,  the  only  wealth  of  a  nation  is  its  people;  moreover 
some  people,  are  as  national  assets,  worth  more  than  others. 
The  goal,  then,  might  be  said  to  be:  a  population  adjusted  in  re- 
spect to  its  numbers  to  the  resources  of  the  country,  and  that 
niunber  of  the  very  best  quality  possible.  Great  diversity  of 
people  is  required  in  modem  society,  but  of  each  desirable 
kind  the  best  obtainable  representatives  are  to  be  desired. 

It  is  at  once  evident  that  a  decline,  rather  than  an  increase,  in 
the  birth-rate  of  some  sections  of  the  population,  is  wanted. 
There  are  some  strata  at  the  bottom  that  are  a  source  of  weak- 
ness rather  than  of  strength  to  the  race,  and  a  source  of  un- 
happiness  rather  than  of  happiness  to  themselves  and  those 
aroimd  them.  These  should  be  reduced  in  number,  as  we  have 
shown  at  some  length  earlier  in  this  book. 

The  other  parts  of  the  population  should  be  perpetuated  by 
the  best,  rather  than  the  worst.  In  no  other  way  can  the  neces- 
sary leaders  be  secured,  without  whom,  in  commerce,  industry, 
poUtics,  science,  the  nation  is  at  a  great  disadvantage.  The  task 
of  eugenics  is  by  no  means  what  it  is  sometimes  supposed  to  be: 
to  breed  a  superior  caste.  But  a  very  important  part  of  its  task 
is  certainly  to  increase  the  number  of  leaders  in  the  race.  And  it 
is  this  part  of  its  task,  in  particular,  which  is  menaced  by  the 
declining  birth-rate  in  the  United  States. 

As  every  one  knows,  race  suicide  is  proceeding  more  rapidly 
among  the  native  whites  than  among  any  other  large  section  of 
the  population;  and  it  is  exactly  this  part  of  the  population 


2S8  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

which  has  in  the  past  furnished  most  of  the  eminent  men  of  the 
country. 

It  has  been  shown  in  previous  chapters  that  eminent  men  do 
not  ^]pear  whc^  by  chance  in  the  population.  The  production 
d  emineDce  is  largely  a  family  afFair;  and  in  America,  "  the  land 
erf  oi^x)rtunity  "  as  well  as  in  older  coxm  tries,  people  of  eminence 
are  much  more  interrelated  than  chance  would  allow.  It  has 
been  shown,  indeed,  that  in  America  it  is  at  least  a  500  to  i  bet 
that  an  eminent  person  will  be  rather  closely  related  to  some 
other  eminent  person,  and  will  not  be  a  sporadic  appearance  in 
the  population.^ 

Taken  with  other  considerations  advanced  in  earlier  chapters, 
this  means  that  a  falling  off  in  the  reproduction  of  the  old  Amer- 
ican best  strains  means  a  falling  off  in  the  niunber  of  eminent 
men  which  the  United  States  will  produce.  No  improvement  in 
education  can  prevent  a  serious  loss,  for  the  strong  minds  get 
more  from  education. 

The  old  American  stock  has  produced  a  vastly  greater  propor- 
tion of  eminence,  has  accomplished  a  great  deal  more  propor- 
tionately, in  modem  times,  than  has  other  any  stock  whose 
representatrv'es  have  been  coming  in  large  numbers  as  im- 
migrants to  these  shores  diudng  the  last  generation.  It  is, 
therefore,  likely  to  continue  to  surpass  them,  imless  it  declines 
too  greatly  in  numbers.  For  this  reason,  we  feel  justified  in 
concluding  that  the  decline  of  the  birth-rate  in  the  old  Ameri- 
can stock  rq)resents  a  decline  in  the  birth-rate  of  a  superior 
element. 

There  is  another  way  of  looking  at  this  poinL  The  stock  imder 
discussion  has  been,  on  the  whole,  economically  ahead  of  such 
stocks  as  are  now  immigrating.  In  competition  with  them 
under  equal  conditions,  it  aj^pears  to  remain  pretty  consistently 

1  OGb  calcnlated  that  16%  <^  the  eminent  men  of  France  had  at  least  one  rdative 
who  was  in  some  way  eminent;  that  22%  of  the  men  of  real  talent  had  such  rdaticHi; 
and  that  »«»««"e  the  geniuses  the  percentage  rose  to  40.  There  are  thus  two  rhanrrs 
oat  of  fire  tint  a  man  of  genius  will  have  an  oninent  relative;  for  a  man  ixcked  at 
raiwWw  faom  tlie  population  the  chance  is  one  in  several  thousand.  See  Odin,  A., 
L*  Gembt  da  Gnmds  Hamnmes,  \tL  I,  p.  432  and  Vc^  II,  Tableau  xii,  Ijiusanne, 
1895- 


ESXREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     259 

aheadf  economically.  Now,  although  we  would  not  msist  <m 
this  point  too  strongly,  it  can  hardly  be  questioned  that  eugenic 
value  is  to  some  extent  correlated  with  eoRKHnic  success  in  life, 
as  all  dearable  qualities  tend  to  be  correlated  together.  Within 
reasonable  limits,  it  is  justifiable  to  treat  the  ecraxmiically 
superior  sections  of  the  nation  as  the  eugenically  superior.  And 
it  is  among  these  economically  superior  sections  of  the  nation 
that  the  birth-rate  has  most  rapidly  and  dangeroudy  fallen. 

The  constant  influx  of  highly  fecund  immigrant  women  tends 
to  obscure  the  fact  that  the  birth-rate  of  the  older  residents  is 
falling  below  par,  and  anal>-sis  of  the  birth-rate  in  various 
sections  of  the  community  is  necessary  to  give  an  understandii^ 
of  what  is  actually  taking  place. 

In  Rhode  Island,  F.  L.  Hoffmann  found  the  a\*erage  number 
of  children  for  each  foreign-bom  woman  to  be  3.35,  and  for  each 
nati\'e-bom  woman  to  be  2.06.  There  were  wide  racial  differ- 
ences among  the  foreign  bom;  the  x-arious  elements  were  repre- 
sented by  the  following  average  number  of  children  per  wife: 

French-Canadians 4.42 

RusBUis 3.51 

Italians 3-49 

Irish 3-45 

Scotch  and  Wdsh 3.09 

Engtish 2.89 

Germans 2.84 

Swedes 2.58 

Fnglish-Canadians 2.56 

Poies 2.31 

In  ^ort,  the  native-bom  whites  in  this  in\'estigation  fefl 
below  every  one  of  the  foreign  nationalities. 

The  ^lassachusetts  censuses  for  1S75  and  1SS4  showed  similar 
results:  the  foreign-bom  women  had  4.5  childroi  each,  and  the 
native-bom  women  2.7  each. 

Frederick  S.  Crmn's  careful  investigation  *  of  New  England 
genealogies,  including  12,722  wives,  has  thrown  a  great  deal  ot 

^  Cram.  Frederick  S,  "Tlie  Decadnce  of  the  Xathr  American  Stock."  Qmt- 
ttfiy  Pmis.  Am.  Sittitlkwl  Assm.,  XDf,  m.  s.  107.  pp.  215-22^,  SqtL,  1914. 


26o  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

light  on  the  steady  decline  in  their  birth-rate.    He  found  the 
average  number  of  children  to  be: 

1750-1799 6.43 

1800-1849 4-94 

-•         1850-1869 3.47 

1870-1879 2.77 

There,  in  four  lines,  is  the  story  of  the  decline  of  the  old  Amer- 
ican stock.  At  present,  it  is  barely  reproducing  itself,  probably 
not  even  that,  for  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  1879  does  not 
mark  the  lowest  point  reached.  Before  1700,  less  than  2%  of 
the  wives  in  this  investigation  had  only  one  child,  now  20%  of 
them  have  only  one.  With  the  emigration  of  old  New  England 
families  to  the  west,  and  the  constant  immigration  of  foreign- 
bom  people  to  take  their  places,  it  is  no  cause  for  surprise  that 
New  England  no  longer  exercises  the  intellectual  leadership  that 
she  once  held. 

For  Massachusetts  as  a  whole,  the  birth-rate  among  the  na- 
tive-bom population  was  12.7  per  1,000  in  1890,  14.9  in  1910, 
while  in  the  foreign-bom  population  it  was  38.6  in  1890  and 
49.1  in  1 910.  After  excluding  all  old  women  and  young  women, 
the  birth-rate  of  the  foreign-bom  women  in  Massachusetts  is 
still  found  to  be  ^  greater  than  that  of  the  native-bom.^ 

In  short,  the  birth-rate  of  the  old  American  stock  is  now  so  low 
that  that  stock  is  dying  out  and  being  supplanted  by  immigrants. 
In  order  that  the  stock  might  even  hold  its  own,  we  have  shown 
that  each  married  woman  should  bear  three  to  four  children. 
At  present  the  married  women  of  the  old  white  American  race  in 
New  England  appear  to  be  bringing  two  or  less  to  maturity. 

It  will  be  profitable  to  digress  for  a  moment  to  consider  farther 
what  this  disappearance  of  the  ancient  population  of  Massachu- 
setts means  to  the  coimtry.  When  all  the  distinguished  men  of 
the  United  States  are  graded,  in  accordance  with  their  distinc- 
tion, it  is  regularly  found,  as  Frederick  Adams  Woods  says,  that 
"Some  states  in  the  union,  some  sections  of  the  country,  have 
produced  more  eminence  than  others,  far  beyond  the  expecta- 

'  Kuczynski,  R.  R.,  Quarterly  Journ.  of  Economics,  Nov.  igoi,  and  Feb.,  1902. 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     261 

tion  from  their  respective  white  populations.  In  this  regard 
Massachusetts  always  leads,  and  Connecticut  is  always  second, 
and  certain  southern  states  are  always  behind  and  fail  to  render 
their  expected  quota."  The  accurate  methods  used  by  Dr. 
Woods  in  this  investigation  leave  no  room  for  doubt  that  in 
almost  every  way  Massachusetts  has  regularly  produced  twice 
as  many  eminent  men  as  its  population  would  lead  one  to  ex- 
pect, and  has  for  some  ranks  and  types  of  achievement  produced 
about  four  times  the  expectation. 

Scott  Nearing's  studies  ^  confirm  those  of  Dr.  Woods.  Taking 
the  most  distinguished  men  and  women  America  has  produced, 
he  found  that  the  number  produced  in  New  England,  per  100,000 
population,  was  much  larger  than  that  produced  by  any  other 
part  of  the  country.  Rhode  Island,  the  poorest  New  England 
state  in  this  respect,  was  yet  30%  above  New  York,  the  best 
state  outside  New  England. 

The  advantage  of  New  England,  however,  he  found  to  be 
rapidly  decreasing.  Of  the  eminent  persons  bom  before  1850, 
30%  were  New  Englanders  although  the  population  of  New 
England  in  1850  was  only  11.8%  of  that  of  the  whole  country. 
But  of  the  eminent  younger  men, — those  bom  between  1880  and 
1889,  New  England,  with  7.5%  of  the  coim try's  population, 
could  claim  only  12%  of  the  genius.  Cambridge,  Mass.,  has 
produced  more  eminent  younger  men  of  the  present  time  than 
any  other  city,  he  discovered,  but  the  cities  which  come  next  in 
order  are  Nashville,  Tenn.,  Columbus,  Ohio,  Lynn,  Mass., 
Washington,  D.  C,  Portland,  Ore.,  Hartford,  Conn.,  Boston, 
Mass.,  New  Haven,  Conn.,  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  and  Chicago,  111. 

There  is  reason  to  beUeve  that  some  of  the  old  New  England 
stock,  which  emigrated  to  the  West,  retains  a  higher  fecundity 
than  does  that  part  of  the  stock  which  remains  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard.  This  fact,  while  a  gratifying  one,  of  course  does  not 
compensate  for  the  low  fertility  of  the  families  which  still  live  in 
New  England. 

*  Nearing,  Scott,  "The  Younger  Generation  of  American  Genius, "  The  Scientific 
Monthly,  11,  pp.  48-61,  Jan.,  1916.  "Geographical  Distribution  of  American  Gen- 
ius," Popular  Science  MonlUy,  II,  August,  19 14. 


262  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Within  this  section  of  the  population,  the  decline  is  un- 
doubtedly taking  place  faster  in  some  parts  than  in  others. 
Statistical  evidence  is  not  available,  to  tell  a  great  deal  about 
this,  but  the  birth-rate  for  the  graduates  of  some  of  the  leading 
women's  colleges  is  known,  and  their  student  bodies  are  made  up 
largely  of  girls  of  superior  stork.  At  Wellesley,  the  graph  in 
Fig.  36  shows  at  a  glance  just  what  is  happening.  Briefly,  the 
graduates  of  that  college  contribute  less  than  one  child  apiece  to 
the  race.  The  classes  do  not  even  reproduce  their  own  num- 
bers. Instead  of  the  3.7  children  which,  according  to  Sprague's 
calculation,  they  ought  to  bear,  they  are  bearing  .86  of  a  child. 

The  foregoing  study  is  one  of  the  few  to  carefully  distinguish 
between  families  which  were  complete  at  the  time  of  study  and 
those  families  where  additional  children  may  yet  be  born.  In  the 
studies  to  follow  this  distinction  may  in  some  cases  be  made  by 
the  reader  in  interpreting  the  data  while  in  other  cases  families 
having  some  years  of  possible  productiveness  ahead  are  included 
with  others  and  the  relative  proportion  of  the  types  is  not  in- 
dicated. The  error  in  these  cases  is  therefore  important  and  the 
reader  is  warned  to  accept  them  only  with  a  mental  allowance 
for  this  factor. 

The  best  students  make  an  even  worse  showing  in  this  respect. 
The  Wellesley  alumnae  who  are  members  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa, — 
that  is,  the  superior  scholars — have  not  .86  of  a  child  each,  but 
only  .65  of  a  child;  while  the  holders  of  the  Durant  and  Wellesley 
scholarships,  awarded  for  intellectual  superiority,^  make  the 
following  pathetic  showing  in  comparison  with  the  whole  class. 

^  In  the  chapter  on  Sexual  Selection  it  was  shown  that  the  Normal  School  girls 
who  stood  highest  in  their  classes  married  earliest.  This  may  seem  a  contradiction 
of  the  Wellesley  marriage  rates  in  this  table.  The  explanation  probably  is  that 
while  mental  superiority  is  itself  attractive  in  a  mate,  there  are  interferences  built 
up  in  the  collegiate  life. 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     263 


WELLESLEY  COLLEGE 

Graduates  of  '01,  '02,  '03,  '04,  Status  of  Fall  of  1912 


Per  cent  married 

All 
44 

Durant  or  Wellesley 

scholars 

35 

Number  of  children: 
Per  graduate 

•37 
.87 

.  20 

Per  wife 

■57 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  Wellesley's  record  is  an  exception, 
for  most  of  the  large  women's  colleges  furnish  deplorable  figures. 
Mount  Holyoke's  record  is: 


Decade  of  gradiialion 

Children  per 
married 
graduate 

Children  per 
graduate 

1842— 1849 

2.77 
338 
2.64 
2-75 
2-54 
1. 91 

2.^7 

iS";©— iSiJo 

2.  'J'; 

1860-1869 

1 .60 

1870-1879 

1.6^ 

1880-1889 

I  .46 

1890— 1892 

0-95 

Nor  can  graduation  from  Bryn  Mawr  College  be  said  to  favor 
motherhood.  By  the  376  alumnae  graduated  there  between 
1888  and  1900,  only  138  children  had  been  produced  up  to 
Jan.  I,  1913.  This  makes  .84  of  a  child  per  married  alumna,  or 
.37  of  a  child  per  graduate,  since  less  than  half  of  the  graduates 
marry.  These  are  the  figures  published  by  the  college  adminis- 
tration. 

Professor  Sprague's  tabulation  of  the  careers  of  Vassar  col- 
lege graduates,  made  from  official  records  of  the  college,  is  worth 
quoting  in  full,  for  the  light  it  throws  on  the  histories  of  college 
girls,  after  they  leave  college: 


264  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

CLASSES  FROM -1867  TO  1892 

Number  of  graduates 959 

Number  that  taught 431  (45%) 

Niunber  that  married 509  (53%) 

Number  that  did  not  marry 450  (47%) 

Nimiber  that  taught  and  afterward 
married 166  (39%  of  all  who  taught) 

Number  that  taught,  married  and  had 
children 112  (67%  of  all  who  taught  and  mar- 
ried) 

Number   that   taught,    married   and 
were  childless 54  (33%) 

Number   of   children   of   those   who 

taught  and  had  children 287  (1.73  children  per  family) 

Number  of  children  of  those  who  mar- 
ried but  did  not  teach 686  (2  per  married  graduate  that  did 

not  teach) 

Total  number  of  children  of  all  grad- 
uates  973  (i  child  per  graduate) 

Average  number  of  children  per  mar- 
ried graduate 1.91 

Average  niunber  of  children  per  grad- 
uate   1 . 00 

CLASSES  FROM  1867  TO  1900 

Number  of  graduates 1 739 

Number  that  taught 800  (46%) 

Number  that  married 854  (49%) 

Number  that  did  not  marry 885  (51%) 

Number  that  taught  and  afterward 

married 294  (31%) 

Number  that  taught,  married  and  had 
children 203  (69%  of  all  who  taught  and  mar- 
ried) 

Number  that  taught,  married  and  were 
childless 91  (31%) 

Number   of   children   of   those   who 
taught  and  had  children 463  (i  .57  children  per  family) 

Number  of  children  of  those  who  mar- 
ried but  did  not  teach 1025  (2  each) 

Total  number  of  children  of  all  grad- 
uates  1488  (.8  child  per  graduate) 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     265 

Average  number  of  children  per  mar- 
ried graduate i .  74  (per  married  graduate) 

Average  number  of  children  per  grad- 
uate  0.8 

If  the  women's  colleges  were  fulfilling  what  the  writers  con- 
sider to  be  their  duty  toward  their  students,  their  graduates 
would  have  a  higher  marriage  and  birth-rate  than  that  of  their 
sisters,  cousins  and  friends  who  do  not  go  to  college.  But  the 
reverse  is  the  case.  M.  R.  Smith's  investigation  showed  the 
comparison  between  college  girls  and  girls  of  equivalent  social 
position  and  of  the  same  or  similar  families,  as  follows: 


Number  of 
children 


College 1 .  65 

Equivalent  Non-College i .  874 


Per  cent  childless 
at  time 


2536 
17.89 


Now  if  education  is  tending  toward  race  suicide,  then  the 
writers  believe  there  is  something  wrong  with  modern  educa- 
tional methods.  And  certainly  all  statistics  available  point  to 
the  fact  that  girls  who  have  been  in  such  an  atmosphere  as  that 
of  some  colleges  for  four  years,  are,  from  a  eugenic  point  of  view, 
of  diminished  value  to  the  race.  This  is  not  an  argument  against 
higher  education  for  women,  but  it  is  a  potent  argument  for  a 
different  kind  of  higher  education  than  many  of  the  colleges  of 
America  are  now  giving  them. 

This  is  one  of  the  causes  for  the  decline  of  the  birth-rate  in 
the  old  American  stock.  But  of  course  it  is  only  one.  A  very 
large  number  of  causes  are  unquestionably  at  work  to  the  same 
end,  and  the  result  can  be  adequately  changed  only  if  it  is  ana- 
lyzed into  as  many  of  its  component  parts  as  possible,  and  each 
one  of  these  dealt  with  separately.  The  writers  have  empha- 
sized the  shortcoming  of  women's  colleges,  because  it  is  easily 
demonstrated  and,  they  believe,  relatively  easily  mitigated. 
But  the  record  of  men's  colleges  is  not  beyond  criticism. 

Miss  Smith  found  that  among  the  college  graduates  of  the 
i8th  century  in  New  England,  only  2%  remained  unmarried, 
while  in  the  Yale  classes  of  1861-1879,  21%  never  married,  and 


366 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


of  the  Harvard  graduates  from  1870-1879  26%  remained  single. 
The  average  number  of  children  per  Harvard  graduate  of  the 
earlier  period  was  found  to  be  3.44,  for  the  latest  period  studied 
1.92.  Among  the  Yale  graduates  it  was  found  that  the  number 
of  children  per  father  had  declined  from  5.16  to  2.55. 


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BIRTH  RATE  OF  HARVARD  AND  YALE  GRADUATES 
Fig.  37. — During  the  period  under  consideration  it  declined  steadily,  al- 
though marriage  was  about  as  frequent  and  as  early  at  the  end  as  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  period.  It  is  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  decline  in  the  birth 
rate  is  due  principally  to  voluntary  limitation  of  families.  J.  C.  Phillips,  who 
made  the  above  graph,  thinks  that  since  1890  the  birth  rate  among  these  college 
graduates  may  be  tending  slightly  to  rise  again. 

Figures  were  obtained  from  some  other  colleges,  which  are  in- 
complete and  should  be  taken  with  reservation.  Their  incom- 
pleteness probably  led  the  number  of  children  to  be  considerably 
underestimated.    At  Amherst,  1872-1879,  it  was  found  that  44 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     267 

of  the  440  graduates  of  the  period  remained  unmarried.  The 
average  number  of  children  per  married  man  was  1.72.  At 
Wesleyan  it  was  found  that  20  of  the  208  graduates,  from  1863 
to  1870,  remained  single;  the  average  number  of  children  per 
married  man  was  2.31. 

The  only  satisfactory  study  of  the  birth-rate  of  graduates  of 
men's  colleges  is  that  recently  made  by  John  C.  Phillips  from  the 
class  lists  of  Harvard  and  Yale,  1850-1890,  summarized  in 
the  accompanying  graph  (Fig.  37).  In  discussing  his  findings, 
Dr.  Phillips  writes: 

"  Roughly,  the  number  of  children  born  per  capita  per  married 
graduate  has  fallen  from  about  3.25  in  the  first  decade  to  2.50 
in  the  last  decade.  The  per  cent  of  graduates  marrying  has  re- 
mained about  the  same  for  forty  years,  and  is  a  trifle  higher  for 
Yale;  but  the  low  figure,  68%  for  the  first  decade  of  Harvard, 
is  probably  due  to  faulty  records,  and  must  not  be  taken  as  sig- 
nificant. 

"The  next  most  interesting  figure  is  the  'Children  Surviving 
per  Capita  per  Graduate.'  This  has  fallen  from  over  2.50  to 
about  1.9.  The  per  cent  of  childless  marriages  increased  very 
markedly  during  the  first  two  decades  and  held  nearly  level 
for  the  last  two  decades.  For  the  last  decade  at  Yale  it  has  even 
dropped  slightly,  an  encouraging  sign.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that 
the  number  of  children  born  to  Yale  graduates  is  almost  con- 
stantly a  trifle  higher  than  that  for  Harvard,  while  the  number 
of  childless  marriages  is  slightly  less."  This  is  probably  owing 
to  the  larger  proportion  of  Harvard  students  living  in  a  large  city. 

If  the  birth-rate  of  graduates  both  of  separate  men's  col- 
leges and  of  separate  women's  colleges  is  alarmingly  low,  that 
of  graduates  of  coeducational  institutions  is  not  always  satis- 
factory, either.  To  some  extent  the  low  birth-rate  is  a  char- 
acteristic of  educated  people,  without  regard  to  the  precise 
nature  of  their  education.  In  a  study  of  the  graduates  of  Syra- 
cuse University,  one  of  the  oldest  coeducational  colleges  of  the 
eastern  United  States,  H.  J.  Banker  found  ^  that  the  number  of 

^Banker,  Howard  J.,  "Coeducation  and  Eugenics,"  Journal  of  Heredity,  VIII, 
pp.  208-214,  May,  1917. 


268  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

children  declined  with  each  decade.  Thus  married  women 
graduates  prior  to  the  Civil  War  had  2  surviving  children  each; 
in  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  they  had  only  one. 
For  married  men  graduates,  the  number  of  surviving  children 
had  fallen  in  the  same  length  of  time  from  2,62  to  1.38.  When 
all  graduates,  married  or  not,  are  counted  in  the  decade  1892- 
1901,  it  is  found  that  the  men  of  Syracuse  have  contributed  to 
the  next  generation  one  surviving  child  each,  the  women  only 
half  a  child  apiece. 

Dr.  Cattell's  investigation  of  the  families  of  1,000  contempo- 
rary American  men  of  science  all  of  which  were  probably  not 
complete  however,  shows  that  they  leave,  on  the  average,  less 
than  two  surviving  children.  Only  one  family  in  75  is  larger 
than  six,  and  22%  of  them  are  childless.  Obviously,  as  far  as 
those  families  are  concerned,  there  will  be  fewer  men  of  inher- 
ent scientific  eminence  in  the  next  generation  than  in  this. 

The  decline  in  the  birth-rate  is  sometimes  attributed  to  the 
fact  that  people  as  a  whole  are  marrying  later  than  they  used  to; 
we  have  already  shown  that  this  idea  is,  on  the  whole,  false. 
The  idea  that  people  as  a  whole  are  marrying  less  than  they 
used  to  is  also,  as  we  have  shown,  mistaken.  The  decline  in  the 
general  birth-rate  can  be  attributed  to  only  one  fact,  and  that 
is  that  married  people  are  having  fewer  children. 

The  percentage  of  childless  wives  in  the  American  stock  is 
steadily  increasing.  Dr.  Crum's  figures  show  the  following  per- 
centage of  childless  wives,  in  the  New  England  genealogies 
with  which  he  worked: 

1750-1799 ..1.88 

1800-1849 4.07 

1850-1869 — 5.91 

1870-1879 8 .  10 

J.  A.  Hill  ^  found,  from  the  1910  census  figures,  that  one  in 
eight  of  the  native-born  wives  is  childless,  as  compared  with 
one  in  five  among  the  Negroes,  one  in  nineteen  among  the  foreign 
born.    Childlessness  of  American  wives  is  therefore  a  consider- 

'  Hill,  Joseph  A.,  "Comparative  Fecundity  of  Women  of  Native  and  Foreign 
Parentage,"  Quarterly  Pubs.  Amer.  Statistical  Assn.,  XIII,  583-604. 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     269 

able,  although  not  a  preponderant  factor,  in  this  decline  of  the 
birth  rate. 

Dr.  Hill  further  found  that  from  10  marriages,  in  various 
stocks,  the  following  numbers  of  children  could  be  expected: 

Native-born  women 27 

Negro-born  women 31 

English-born  women 34 

Russian-born  women 54 

French  Canada-bom  women 56 

Polish-born  women 62 

The  women  of  the  old  American  stock  are  on  the  whole  more 
sterile  or,  if  not  sterile,  less  fecund,  than  other  women  in  the 
United  States.    Why? 

In  answer,  various  physiological  causes  are  often  alleged.  It 
is  said  that  the  dissemination  of  venereal  diseases  has  caused  an 
increase  of  sterility;  that  luxurious  living  lowers  fecundity,  and 
so  on.  It  is  impossible  to  take  the  time  to  analyze  the  many  ex- 
planations of  this  sort  which  have  been  offered,  and  which  are 
familiar  to  the  reader;  we  must  content  ourselves  with  saying 
that  evidence  of  a  great  many  kinds,  largely  statistical  and,  in 
our  opinion,  reliable,  indicates  that  physiological  causes  play  a 
minor  part  in  the  decrease  of  the  birth-rate.^ 

Or,  plainly,  women  no  longer  bear  as  many  children,  because 
they  don't  want  to. 

This  accords  with  Dr.  Cattell's  inquiry  of  461  American  men 
of  science;  in  285  cases  it  was  stated  that  the  family  was  volun- 
tarily limited,  the  cause  being  given  as  health  in  133  cases,  ex- 
pense in  98  cases,  and  various  in  54  cases.  Sidney  Webb's 
investigation  among  "intellectuals"  in  London  showed  an  even 
greater  proportion  of  voluntary  limitation.  The  exhaustive 
investigation  of  the  Galton  Laboratory  of  National  Eugenics 
leaves  little  room  for  doubt  that  in  England  the  decline  in  the 
birth-rate  began  about  1876-78,  when  the  trial  of  Charles  Brad- 
laugh  and  the  Theosophist  leader,  Mrs.  Annie  Besant,  on  the 
charge    of    circulating    "  neo-Malthusian "    literature,    focused 

1  See  Willcox,  W.  F.,  "Fewer  Births  and  Deaths:  What  Do  They  Mean?  "  Journal 
of  Heredity,  VII,  pp.  1 19-128,  March,  1916. 


270  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

public  attention  on  the  possibility  of  birth  control,  and  gradually 
brought  a  knowledge  of  the  means  of  contraception  within 
reach  of  many.  In  the  United  States  statistics  are  lacking, 
but  medical  men  and  others  in  a  position  to  form  opinions 
generally  agree  that  the  Umitation  of  births  has  been  steadily 
increasing  for  the  last  few  decades;  and  with  the  propaganda 
at  present  going  on,  it  is  pretty  sure  to  increase  much  more 
rapidly  during  the  next  decade  or  two. 

Some  instructive  results  can  be  drawn,  in  this  connection,  from 
a  study  of  the  families  of  Methodist  clergymen  in  the  United 
States.^  Although  98  out  of  every  hundred  of  them  marry,  and 
they  marry  early,  the  birth-rate  is  not  high.  Its  distribution  is 
presented  in  the  accompanying  graph  (Fig.  38).  It  is  evident 
that  they  have  tended  to  standardize  the  two-child  family 
which  is  so  much  in  evidence  among  college  professors  and  edu- 
cated classes  generally,  all  over  the  world.  The  presence  of  a 
considerable  number  of  large  families  raises  the  average  number 
of  surviving  children  of  prominent  Methodists  to  3.12. 

And  in  so  explaining  the  cause  of  the  declining  birth-rate 
among  native-born  Americans,  we  have  also  found  the  principal 
reason  for  the  differential  nature  of  the  decline  in  the  nation  at 
large,  which  is  the  feature  that  alarms  the  eugenist.  The  more 
intelligent  and  well-to-do  part  of  the  population  has  been  able 
to  get  and  use  the  needed  information,  and  limit  its  birth-rate; 
the  poor  and  ignorant  has  been  less  able  to  do  so,  and  their  rate 
of  increase  has  therefore  been  more  natural  in  a  large  percen- 
tage of  cases. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  many  eugenists  should  have 
advocated  wider  dissemination  of  the  knowledge  of  means  of 
limiting  births,  with  the  idea  that  if  this  practice  were  extended 

*  The  data  are  published  in  full  by  Paul  Popenoe  in  the  Journal  of  Heredity,  Octo 
ber,  1917.  It  must  be  noted  that,  in  spite  of  their  small  salaries,  the  Methodist 
clergymen  marry  earlier  and  have  more  children  than  do  other  men  of  equal  educa- 
tion and  social  status,  such  as  the  Harvard  and  Yale  graduates.  This  difference 
in  marriage  and  birth-rate  is  doubtless  to  be  credited  in  part  to  their  inherent  nature 
and  in  part  to  the  action  of  reUgious  idealism.  It  confirms  the  belief  of  eugenists 
that  even  under  present  economic  circumstances  the  birth-rate  of  the  superior 
classes  might  be  raised  appreciably  by  a  campaign  of  eugenic  education. 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF.  SUPERIORS     271 


20% 

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01        2       3       456       789101112 
NUMBER  OF  CHILDREN 

FAMILIES  OF  PROMINENT  METHODISTS 
Fig.  38. — The  heavy  line  shows  the  distribution  of 
families  of  prominent  Methodists  (mostly  clergymen) 
who  married  only  once.  Eleven  {jercent  had  no  sur- 
viving children  and  nearly  half  of  the  families  con- 
sisted of  two  children  or  less.  The  dotted  line  shows 
the  families  of  those  who  were  twice  married.  It 
would  naturally  be  expected  that  two  women  would 
bear  considerably  more  children  than  one  woman,  but 
as  an  average  fact  it  appears  that  a  second  wife  means 
the  addition  of  only  half  a  child  to  the  minister's 
family.  It  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that 
the  birth-rate  in  these  families  is  determined  more  by 
the  desire  of  the  parents  (based  on  economic  grounds) 
than  on  the  natural  fecundity  of  the  women.  In  other 
words,  the  number  of  children  is  limited  to  the 
number  whom  the  minister  can  afiford  to  bring  up  on 
his  inadequate  salary. 


272  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

to  the  lower  classes,  their  birth-rate  would  decrease  just  the  same 
as  has  that  of  the  upper  classes,  and  the  alarming  differential 
rate  would  therefore  be  abolished. 

Against  this  it  might  be  argued  that  the  desired  result  will 
never  be  wholly  attained,  because  the  most  effective  means 
of  birth  control  involve  some  expense,  and  because  their  ef- 
fective use  presupposes  a  certain  amount  of  foresight  and 
self-control  which  is  not  always  fovmd  among  the  lower  strata 
of  society. 

Despite  certain  dangers  accompanying  a  widespread  dis- 
semination of  the  knowledge  of  how  to  limit  births,  it  seems  to 
be  the  opinion  of  most  eugenists  that  if  free  access  to  such  in- 
formation be  not  permitted  that  at  least  such  knowledge  ought  to 
be  given  in  many  families,  where  it  would  be  to  the  advantage 
of  society  that  fewer  children  be  produced.  Such  a  step,  of 
course,  must  be  taken  on  the  individual  responsibihty  of  a  doc- 
tor, nurse  or  other  social  worker.  A  propaganda  has  arisen 
dming  recent  years,  in  the  United  States,  for  the  repeal  of 
all  laws  which  prohibit  giving  knowledge  about  and  selling 
contraceptives.  Whether  or  not  it  succeeds  in  changing  the 
law  it  will,  like  the  Bradlaugh-Besant  episode,  spread  contra- 
ception widely.  This  propaganda  is  based  largely  on  social 
and  economic  grounds,  and  is  sometimes  imscientific  in  its 
methods  and  avowed  aims.  But  whatever  its  nature  may  be, 
there  seems  little  reason  (judging  from  analogy  in  European 
coimtries)  to  believe  that  it  can  be  stopped. 

The  "infant  mortality  movement"  also  has  an  effect  here 
which  is  rarely  recognized.  It  is  a  stock  argument  of  birth 
control  propagandists  that  a  high  birth-rate  means  a  high  rate  of 
infant  mortality;  but  A.  O.  Powys  has  demonstrated  that  cause 
and  effect  are  to  some  extent  reversed  in  this  statement,  and  that 
it  is  equally  true  that  a  high  rate  of  infant  mortality  means  a 
high  birth-rate,  in  a  section  of  the  population  where  birth  con- 
trol is  not  practiced.  The  explanation  is  the  familiar  fact  that 
conception  takes  place  less  often  in  nursing  mothers.  But  if  a 
child  dies  early  or  is  bottle-fed,  a  new  conception  is  likely  to 
occur  much  sooner  than  would  otherwise  be  the  case.    By  re^ 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     273 

ducing  infant  mortality  and  teaching  mothers  to  feed  their 
babies  naturally,  the  infant  mortality  movement  is  thereby  re- 
ducing the  birth-rate  in  the  poorer  part  of  the  population,  a 
eugenic  service  which  to  some  extent  offsets  the  dysgenic  results 
that,  as  we  shall  show  in  the  last  chapter,  follow  the  "  Save  the 
Babies"  propaganda. 

With  the  spread  of  the  birth  control  and  infant  mortahty 
movements  one  may  therefore  look  forward  to  some  diminution 
of  the  differential  element  in  the  birth-rate,  together  with  a 
further  decUne  in  that  birth-rate  as  a  whole. 

Such  a  situation,  which  seems  to  us  almost  a  certainty  within 
the  next  decade  or  two,  wdll  not  change  the  duty  of  eugenics,  on 
which  we  have  been  insisting  in  this  chapter  and,  to  a  large  ex- 
tent, throughout  the  present  book.  It  will  be  just  as  necessary 
as  ever  that  the  families  which  are,  and  have  been  in  the  past, 
of  the  greatest  benefit  and  value  to  the  country,  have  a  higher 
birth-rate.  The  greatest  task  of  eugenics,  as  we  see  it,  will  still 
be  to  find  means  by  which  the  birth-rate  among  such  families 
can  be  increased.  This  increase  in  the  birth-rate  among  superior 
people  must  depend  largely  on  a  change  in  public  sentiment. 
Such  a  change  may  be  brought  about  in  many  ways.  The  au- 
thority of  reUgion  may  be  invoked,  as  it  is  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
and  Mormon  churches  ^  whose  communicants  are  constantly 
taught  that  fecundity  is  a  virtue  and  voluntary  sterihty  a  sin. 
Unfortunately  their  appeal  fails  to  make  proper  discriminations. 
Whatever  may  be  the  theological  reasons  for  such  an  attitude 
on  the  part  of  the  churches,  its  practical  eugenic  significance  is 
clear  enough. 

Nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  that,  if  present  condi- 
tions continue,  Roman  Catholics  will  soon  be  in  an  over- 
whelming preponderance  in  the  eastern  United  States,  because 
of  the  differential  birth-rate,  if  for  no  other  reason;  and  that  the 
Mormon  population  will  steadily  gain  ground  in  the  west. 
Similarly,  it  is  alleged  that  the  population  of  France  is  gradually 
assuming  the  characteristics  of  the  Breton  race,  because  that 

'  For  an  official  statement  of  the  attitude  of  the  birth-rate  of  the  Mormon  church, 
see  Journal  of  Heredity,  VII,  pp.  450-451,  Oct.,  1916. 


»74  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

race  is  the  notably  fecund  section  of  the  popvilation,  while 
nearly  all  the  other  components  of  the  nation  are  committing 
race  smcide  (although  not  so  rapudly  as  is  the  old  white  stock  in 
New  England").  Again,  the  role  of  religion  in  eugenics  is  shown 
in  China,  where  ancestor  worship  leads  to  a  desire  for  children, 
and  makes  it  a  disgrace  to  be  childless.  A  process  analogous  to 
natural  selection  applies  to  religions  much  as  it  does  to  races; 
and  if  the  Chinese  religion,  with  its  requirement  of  a  high 
birth-rate,  and  the  present-day  American  Protestant  form  of  the 
Christian  religion,  with  its  lack  of  eugenic  teaching,  should 
come  into  direct  competition,  under  equal  conditions  of  environ- 
ment, it  is  obvious  that  the  Chinese  form  would  be  the  eventual 
survivor,  just  because  its  adherents  would  steadily  increase  and 
those  of  its  rival  would  as  steadily  decrease.  Such  a  situation 
may  seem  fanciful;  yet  the  leaders  of  every  church  may  well 
consider  whether  the  religion  which  they  preach  is  calculated  to 
fill  all  the  needs  of  its  adherents,  if  it  is  silent  on  the  subject  of 
exigenics. 

The  influence  of  economic  factors  on  the  birth-rate  is  marked. 
The  child,  under  modem  urban  conditions,  is  not  an  economic 
asset,  as  he  was  on  the  farm  in  earlier  days.  He  is  an  economic 
liability  instead.  And  with  the  constant  rise  of  the  standard  of 
living,  with  the  increase  of  taxation,  the  child  steadily  becomes 
more  of  a  liability.  Many  married  people  desire  children,  or 
more  children,  but  feel  that  they  can  not  have  them  without 
sacrificing  something  that  they  are  vmwilling  to  sacrifice. 

Anal>-sis  of  this  increase  in  the  cost  of  children,  reveals  not 
less  than  five  main  elements  which  deserve  attention  from 
eugenists. 

1.  It  costs  more  to  clothe  children  than  it  used  to.  Not  only 
does  clothing  of  a  given  quality  cost  more  now  than  it  did  a 
decade  or  two  ago,  but  there  are  more  fabrics  and  designs  avail- 
able, and  many  of  these,  while  attractive,  are  costly  and  not 
durable.  Compliance  to  fashion  has  increasingly  made  itself 
felt  in  the  dothing  of  the  child. 

2.  It  costs  more  to  feed  them  than  it  used  to.  Not  only  has 
food  for  everyone  increased  in  price,  but  the  standards  for  feed- 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     275 

ii^  dnldren  have  been  raised.  Oooe  duldcenivae  eipedted  to 
be  coatent  with  pbin  faie;  nam  it  b  moie  fiequeully  the  costam 
to  give  them  jiet  what  the  rest  of  the  family  eats. 

3.  The  cost  of  mfdiral  attenticm  has  increased.  All  tUtnan^ 
mote  of  the  doctois  now  than  tfaejr  <fid  in  the  last  gmeralion. 
Tlie  doctors  aie  able  to  do  more  dian  they  fatmrriy  could,  and 
partknlaify  for  hB  children,  evecy  man  wants  the  best  that  he 
can  possibty  affotd.  Knee  medkal  atfj-wfawry  §ar  a  child  is 
constantly  becoming  more  costly,  becaice  more  fteqnoit;  and 
farther,  the  amomit  of  money  wtnch  parents  spend  on  meifical 
attendance  for  their  children  osnalty  increases  with  any  increase 
in  theirincome. 

4.  The  cost  of  domestic  tabor  is  greater.  Most  kinds  of  domes- 
tic service  have  more  than  doobled  in  price  within  the  memory 
of  relatively  yoong  People.  Moreover,  it  k  gradnally  bciqg 
realized  that  a  hi^  standard  is  deacaUe  in  selecting  a  mnse 
for  children.  As  a  fact,  a  children's  mnse  aa^at  to  have  nmch 
greater  qualifications  than  the  mnse  whose  dnly  is  to  care 
far  sick  adults.  If  a  motiber  is  obliged  to  A4rjpt^  port  of 
the  wok  of  bringing  np  her  children  to  some  other  woman, 
site  B  beginning  to  recognize  that  thk  aubealitute  mother 
dioald  have  siqienor  alxlity;  and  the  teachers  of  soboon- 
sdous  psydidagy  love  emphasized  the  imparlance  off  giviqg 
a  diiki  oaiy  the  best  possiUe  intfUprtnal  surrounffingSu  Jg- 
norant  mnsemaids  are  nnwilEi^^  tderated,  and  as  the  nnm- 
ber  <rf  competent  assistants  for  mothers  is  very  anaO,  dhe 
cost  B  corrcspoidii^^  h^i.  An  increase  in  the  nrnrihrr 
of  persons  trained  for  such  w«k  is  to  be  antidpated,  bat  it  is 
likely  that  the  demand  for  them  will  grow  even  move  rapidly; 
hence  there  B  no  reasm  to  eipect  that  competent  domestic  hc^ 
win  become  any  less  costfy^  than  it  b  now. 

5.  The  standards  of  edncation  have  rBcn  steadBlty.  There  is 
perhaps  no  other  feature  whiA  has  tended  rnore  to  limit  familirs. 
Consdentioas  parents  have  often  detctmined  to  have  no  more 
children  don  dicy  cooidaffiotd  to  educate  in  tibe  best  possilile 
way.  This  meant  at  least  a  ooDc^ge  edncatinn,  and  firequendy 
has  kd  to  one  and  two-child  £unific&    It  b  a  motive  of  birth 


276  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

control  which  calls  for  condemnation.  The  old  idea  of  valuable 
mental  discipline  for  all  kinds  of  mental  work  to  be  gained  from 
protracted  difficult  formal  education  is  now  rejected  by  educa- 
tional psychologists,  but  its  prevalence  in  the  popular  mind 
serves  to  make  "higher  education"  still  something  of  a  fetish, 
from  which  marvelous  results,  not  capable  of  precise  compre- 
hension, are  anticipated.  We  do  not  disparage  the  value  of  a 
college  education,  in  saying  that  parents  should  not  attach  such 
importance  to  it  as  to  lead  them  to  limit  their  family  to  the 
number  to  whom  they  can  give  20  years  of  education  without 
pecuniary  compensation. 

The  effect  of  these  various  factors  in  the  increasing  cost  of 
children  is  to  decrease  fecundity  not  so  much  on  the  basis  of 
income  of  parents,  as  on  the  basis  of  their  standards.  The  pru- 
dent, conscientious  parent  is  therefore  the  one  most  affected, 
and  the  reduction  in  births  is  greatest  in  that  class,  where  eu- 
genics is  most  loth  to  see  it. 

The  remedy  appears  to  be  a  change  in  public  opinion  which 
will  result  in  a  truer  idea  of  values.  Some  readjustments  in 
family  budgets  are  called  for,  which  will  discriminate  more 
clearly  between  expenditure  that  is  worth  while,  and  that  which 
is  not.  Without  depriving  his  children  of  the  best  medical  at- 
tention and  education,  one  may  eliminate  those  invidious  sources 
of  expense  which  benefit  neither  the  children  nor  anyone  else, — 
overdressing,  for  instance.  A  simplification  of  life  would  not 
only  enable  superior  people  to  have  larger  families,  but  would 
often  be  an  advantage  to  the  children  already  born. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  fact  that  higher  standards  in  a  popu- 
lation lead  to  fewer  children  suggests  a  valuable  means  of  re- 
ducing the  birth-rate  of  the  inferior.  Raise  their  low  standards 
of  living  and  they  will  reduce  their  own  fertility  voluntarily  (the 
birth  control  movement  furnishing  them  with  the  possibility). 
All  educational  work  in  the  slums  therefore  is  likely  to  have  a 
valuable  though  indirect  eugenic  outcome.  The  poor  foreign- 
speaking  areas  in  large  cities,  where  immigrants  live  huddled  to- 
gether in  squalor,  should  be  broken  up.  As  these  people  are 
given  new  ideas  of  comfort,  and  as  their  children  are  educated 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     277 

in  American  ways  of  living,  there  is  every  reason  to  expect  a 
decline  in  their  birth-rate,  similar  to  that  which  has  taten  place 
among  the  native-born  during  the  past  generation. 

This  elevation  of  standards  in  the  lower  classes  will  be  ac- 
complished without  any  particular  exertion  from  eugenists; 
there  are  many  agencies  at  work  in  this  field,  although  they 
rarely  realize  the  result  of  their  work  which  we  have  just 
pointed  out. 

But  to  effect  a  discriminating  change  in  the  standards  of  the 
more  intelligent  and  better  educated  classes  calls  for  a  real 
effort  on  the  part  of  all  those  who  have  the  welfare  of  society 
at  heart.  The  difficulties  are  great  enough  and  the  obstacles  are 
evident  enough;  it  is  more  encouraging  to  look  at  the  other  side, 
and  to  see  evidences  that  the  public  is  awakening.  The  events  of 
every  month  show  that  the  ideals  of  eugenics  are  filtering 
through  the  public  mind  more  rapidly  than  some  of  us,  a  decade 
ago,  felt  justified  in  expecting.  There  is  a  growing  recognition 
of  the  danger  of  bad  breeding;  a  growing  recognition  in  some 
quarters  at  least  of  the  need  for  more  children  from  the  superior 
part  of  the  population;  a  growing  outcry  against  the  excessive 
standards  of  luxury  that  are  making  children  themselves  luxu- 
ries. The  number  of  those  who  call  themselves  eugenists,  or  who 
are  in  sympathy  with  the  aims  of  eugenics,  is  increasing  every 
year,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  growth  of  such  an  organization  as 
the  American  Genetic  Association,  Legislators  show  an  eager 
desire  to  pass  measures  that  as  they  (too  often  wrongly)  be- 
lieve will  have  a  eugenic  result.  Most  colleges  and  universities 
are  teaching  the  principles  of  heredity,  and  a  great  many  of 
them  add  definite  instruction  in  the  principles  of  eugenics. 
Although  the  ultimate  aim  of  eugenics — to  raise  the  level  of  the 
whole  human  race — is  perhaps  as  great  an  undertaking  as  the 
human  mind  can  conceive,  the  American  nation  shows  distinct 
signs  of  a  willingness  to  grapple  with  it.  And  this  book  will  have 
failed  in  its  purpose,  if  it  has  not  convinced  the  reader  that 
means  are  available  for  attacking  the  problem  at  many  points, 
and  that  immediate  progress  is  not  a  mere  dream. 

One  of  the  first  necessary  steps  is  a  change  in  educationaf 


278  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

methods  to  give  greater  emphasis  to  parenthood.  And  this 
change,  it  is  a  great  pleasure  to  be  able  to  say,  is  being  made  in 
many  places.  The  public  schools  are  gradually  beginning  to 
teach  mothercraft,  under  various  guises,  in  many  cities  and  the 
School  of  Practical  Arts,  Columbia  Univ.,  gives  a  course  in  the 
"Physical  Care  of  the  Infant."  Public  and  private  institutions 
are  beginning  to  recognize,  what  has  long  been  ignored,  that 
parenthood  is  one  of  the  functions  of  men  and  women,  toward 
which  their  education  should  be  directed.  Every  such  step 
will  tend,  we  believe,  to  increase  the  birth-rate  among  the  su- 
perior classes  of  the  community;  every  such  step  is  therefore, 
indirectly  if  not  directly,  a  gain  for  eugenics;  for,  as  we  have  em- 
phasized time  and  again,  a  change  in  public  opinion,  to  recognize 
parenthood  as  a  beautiful  and  desirable  thing,  is  one  of  the  first 
desiderata  of  the  eugenics  program. 

The  introduction  of  domestic  science  and  its  rapid  spread  are 
very  gratifying,  yet  there  are  serious  shortcomings,  as  rather 
too  vigorously  set  forth  by  A.  E.  Hamilton: 

"There  are  rows  of  little  gas  stoves  over  which  prospective 
wives  conduct  culinary  chemical  experiments.  There  are  courses 
in  biology,  something  of  physiology  and  hygiene,  the  art  of  in- 
terior decoration  and  the  science  of  washing  clothes.  There  is 
text-book  sociology  and  sometimes  lectures  on  heredity  or  eu- 
genics. But  the  smile  of  incredulity  as  to  my  seriousness  when 
I  asked  a  Professor  in  the  Margaret  Morrison  Carnegie  School 
[a  college  of  Practical  Arts  for  Women],  'Where  are  the  babies?' 
is  typical.  Babies  were  impossible.  They  would  interfere  with 
the  curriculum,  there  was  no  time  for  practice  with  babies,  and 
besides,  where  could  they  be  got,  and  how  could  they  be  taken 
care  of?  The  students  were  altogether  too  busy  with  calories, 
balanced  rations,  and  the  history  of  medieval  art." 

Perhaps  the  time  is  not  so  far  distant  when  babies  will  be 
considered  an  integral  part  of  a  girl's  curriculum.  If  educators 
begin  systematically  to  educate  the  emotions  as  well  as  the  in- 
tellect, they  will  have  taken  a  long  step  toward  increasing  the 
birth-rate  of  the  superior.  The  next  step  will  be  to  correlate  in- 
come more  truly  with  ability  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  possible 


INCREASING  BIRTH-RATE  OF  SUPERIORS     279 

for  superior  young  parents  to  afford  children  earlier.  The  child 
ought,  if  eugenically  desirable,  to  be  made  an  asset  rather  than 
a  liability;  if  this  can  not  be  done,  the  parents  should  at  least 
not  be  penalized  for  having  children.  In  this  chapter,  em- 
phasis has  been  laid  on  the  need  for  a  change  in  public  opinion ; 
in  future  chapters  some  economic  and  social  reforms  will  be 
suggested,  which  it  is  believed  would  tend  to  make  superior 
parents  feel  willing  to  have  more  children. 

The  education  of  public  opinion  which,  acting  through  the 
many  agencies  named,  will  gradually  bring  about  an  increase 
in  the  birth-rate  of  superior  people,  will  not  be  speedy;  but  it  has 
begun.  The  writers,  therefore,  feel  justified  in  thinking,  not 
solely  as  a  matter  of  optimistic  affirmation,  but  because  of  the 
evidence  available,  that  the  race  suicide  now  taking  place  in  the 
old  American  stock  will  soon  reach  its  lowest  limit,  and  that 
thereafter  the  birth-rate  in  that  particular  stock  will  slowly 
rise.  If  it  does,  and  if,  as  seems  probable,  the  birth-rate  in 
some  inferior  sections  of  the  American  population  at  the  same 
time  falls  from  its  present  level,  a  change  in  the  racial  composi- 
tion of  the  nation  will  take  place,  which,  judged  by  past  history, 
is  bound  to  be  of  great  eugenic  value. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  COLOR  LINE 

"  A  young  white  woman,  a  graduate  of  a  great  university  of 
the  far  North,  where  Negroes  are  seldom  seen,  resented  it  most 
indignantly  when  she  was  threatened  with  social  ostracism  in  a 
city  farther  South  with  a  large  Negro  population  because  she 
insisted  upon  receiving  upon  terms  of  social  equaUty  a  Negro 
man  who  had  been  her  classmate.^  " 

The  incident  seems  trivial.  But  the  phenomenon  back  of  it, 
the  "color  line,"  is  so  far-reaching  that  it  deserves  careful  ex- 
amination. 

As  the  incident  suggests,  the  color  line  is  not  a  universal  phe- 
nomenon. The  Germans  appear  to  have  little  aversion  to  re- 
ceiving Negroes — in  Germany — on  terms  of  equality.  These 
same  Germans,  when  brought  face  to  face  with  the  question  in 
their  colonies,  or  in  the  southern  United  States,  quickly  change 
their  attitude.  Similarly  a  Negro  in  Great  Britain  labors  under 
much  less  disadvantage  than  he  does  among  the  British  inhabi- 
tants of  Australia  or  South  Africa. 

The  color  line  therefore  exists  only  as  the  result  of  race  ex- 
perience. This  fact  alone  is  sufficient  to  suggest  that  one  should 
not  dismiss  it  lightly  as  the  outgrowth  of  bigotry.  Is  is  not  per- 
haps a  social  adaptation  with  survival  value? 

The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to  analyze  society's  "uncon- 
scious reasoning  "  which  has  led  to  the  establishment  of  a  color 
line — to  the  denial  of  social  equality — wherever  the  white  ^  and 

'  Mecklin,  John  M.,  Democracy  and  Race  Friction,  a  Study  in  Social  Ethics,  New 
York,  1914.  p.  147. 

*  It  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  the  Nordic  race.  Other  white  races  have  not 
uniformly  shown  this  discrimination.  The  Mediterranean  race  in  particular  has 
never  manifested  the  same  amount  of  race  feeling.  The  Arabs  have  tended  to 
receive  the  Negro  almost  on  terms  of  equality,  partly  on  religious  grounds;  it 
seems  probable  that  the  decadence  of  the  Arabs  is  largely  due  to  their  miscegen- 
ation. 

280 


THE  COLOR  LINE  281 

black  races  have  long  been  in  contact  during  recent  history; 
and  to  see  whether  this  discrimination  appears  to  be  justified 
by  eugenics. 

J.  M.  Mecklin  ^  summarizes  society's  logic  as  follows: 

"  When  society  permits  the  free  social  intercourse  of  two  young  y^^,^  v 
persons  of  similar  training  and  interests,  it  tacitly  gives  its  con-  ^Ky^_^ 
sent  to  the  possible  legitimate  results  of  such  relations,  namely,  'Ji^^tJi 
marriage.  But  marriage  is  not  a  matter  that  concerns  the  con-  T^c>a<^ 
tracting  parties  alone;  it  is  social  in  its  origin  and  from  society     fY^i^, 

come  its  sanctions.    It  is  society's  legitimatised  method  for  the 

perpetuation  of  the  race  in  the  larger  and  inclusive  sense  of  a 
continuous  racial  type  which  shall  be  the  bearer  of  a  continuous 
and  progressive  civilization.  There  are,  however,  within  the 
community,  two  racial  groups  of  such  widely  divergent  physical 
and  psychic  characteristics  that  the  blending  of  the  two  de- 
stroys the  purity  of  the  type  of  both  and  introduces  confusion — 
the  result  of  the  blend  is  a  mongrel.  The  preservation  of  the 
unbroken,  self-conscious  existence  of  the  white  or  dominant 
ethnic  group  is  synonjnuous  with  the  preservation  of  all  that  - 
has  meaning  and  inspiration  in  its  past  and  hope  for  its  future. 
It  forbids  by  law,  therefore,  or  by  the  equally  effective  social 
taboo,  anything  that  would  tend  to  contaminate  the  purity  of 
its  stock  or  jeopardize  the  integrity  of  its  social  heritage."  "- — 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  "social  mind"  does  not  con-  "^^ 
sciously  go  through  any  such  process  of  reasoning,  before  it  ^j'^'^ 

draws  a  color  line.    The  social  mind  rarely  even  attempts  to  . 

justify  its  conclusions.     It  merely  holds  a  general  attitude  of  . 

superiority^,  which  in  many  cases  appears  to  be  nothing  moTfe         j^ 
than  a  feeling  that  another  race  is  different. 

In  what  way  different? 

The  difference  between  the  white  race  and  the  black  (or  any 
other  race)  might  consist  of  two  elements:  (i)  differences  in 
heredity — biological  differences;  (2)  differences  in  traditions, 
environment,  customs — social  differences,  in  short.  A  critical 
inquirer  would  want  to  know  which  kind  of  difference  was 
greater,  for  he  would  at  once  see  that  the  second  kind  might 

^  Mecklin,  op.  cil.,  p.  147. 


282  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

be  removed  by  education  and  other  social  forces,  while  the  first 
kind  would  be  substantially  permanent. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  find  persons  of  prominence  who  will  assert 
.  that  all  the  differences  between  white  and  Negro  are  differences 
^^.^^''"^  of  a  social  nature,  that  the  differences  of  a  physical  nature  are 
*V  negligible,  and  that  if  the  Negro  is  "given  a  chance"  the  sig- 
'^/TaV^  nificant  dififerences  will  disappear.  This  attitude  permeates  the 
M  y  public  school  system  of  northern  states.  A  recent  report  on  the 
i/^  condition  of  Negro  pupils  in  the  New  York  City  public  schools 

professes  to  give  "few,  perhaps  no,  recommendations  that  would 
not  apply  to  the  children  of  other  races.  Where  the  application 
is  more  true  in  regard  to  colored  children,  it  seems  largely  to 
be  because  of  this  lack  of  equal  justice  in  the  cases  of  their 
parents.  Race  weakness  appears  but  this  could  easily  be  bal- 
anced by  the  same  or  similar  weakness  in  other  races.  Given 
an  education  carefully  adapted  to  his  needs  and  a  fair  chance 
NC  I  for  employment,  I  the  normal  child  of  any  race  will  succeed^  un- 
less the  burden  of  wrong  home  conditions  lies  too  heavily  upon 
him."i 

As  the  writer  does  not  define  what  she  means  by  "  succeed," 

W\     one  is  obliged  to  guess  at  what  she  means:    Her  anthropology 

\    \     is  apparently  similar  to  that  of  Franz  Boas  of  Columbia  Unl- 

(versity,  who  has  said  that,  "No  proof  can  be  given  of  any  ma- 
terial inferiority  of  the  Negro  race; — without  doubt  the  bulk 
of  the  individuals  composing  the  race  are  equal  in  mental  apti- 
tude to  the  bulk  of  our  own  people." 

If  such  a  statement  is  wholly  true,  the  color  line  can  hardly 
be  justified,  but  must  be  regarded,  as  it  is  now  the  case  some- 
times, as  merely  the  expression  of  prejudice  and  ignorance.  If 
the  only  dififerences  between  white  and  black,  which  can  not  be 
removed  by  education,  are  of  no  real  significance, — a  chocolate 
hue  of  skin,  a  certain  kinkiness  of  hair,  and  so  on, — then  logic- 
ally the  white  race  should  remove  the  handicaps  which  lack  of 

^  Blascoer,  Frances,  Colored  School  Children  in  New  York,  Public  Education  Asso- 
ciation of  the  City  of  New  York,  1915.  The  preface,  from  which  the  quotation  is 
taken,  is  by  Eleanor  Hope  Johnson,  chairman  of  the  committee  on  hygiene  of  school 
children. 


THE  COLOR  LINE  28.^ 

education  and  bad  environment  have  placed  on  the  Negro, 
and  receive  him  on  terms  of  perfect  equality,  in  business,  in 
politics,  and  in  marriage. 

The  proposition  needs  only  to  be  stated  in  this  frank  form, 
to  arouse  an  instinctive  protest  on  the  part  of  most  Americans. 
Yet  it  has  been  urged  in  an  almost  equally  frank  form  by  many 
writers,  from  the  days  of  the  abolitionists  to  the  present,  and  it 
seems  to  be  the  logical  consequence  of  the  position  adopted  by 
such  anthropologists  as  Professor  Boas,  and  by  the  educators  and 
others  who  proclaim  that  there  are  no  significant  differences  be- 
tween the  Negro  and  the  white,  except  such  as  are  due  to  social 
conditions  and  which,  therefore,  can  be  removed. 

But  what  are  these  social  differences,  which  it  is  the  custom 
to  dismiss  in  such  a  light-hearted  way?    Are  they  not  based  on 
fimdamental  incompatibihties  of  racial  temperament,  which  in 
turn  are  based  on  differences  in  heredity?    Modem  sociologists    X 
for  the  main  part  have  no  illusions  as  to  the  ease  with  which  these     I  X 
differences  in  racial  tradition  and  custom  can  be  removed.  ' 

The  social  heritage  of  the  Negro  has  been  described  at  great  ^^^    ' 
length  and  often  with  little  regard  for  fact,  by  hundreds  of  "j^^  y, 
writers.    Only  a  glance  can  be  given  the  subject  here,  but  it    — ..____^ 
may  profitably  be  asked  what  the  Negro  did  when  he  was  left 
to  himself  in  Africa. 

"The  most  striking  feature  of  the  African  Negro  is  the  low 
forms  of  social  organization,  the  lack  of  industrial  and  political 
cooperation,  and  consequently  the  almost  entire  absence  of  so- 
cial and  national  self-consciousness.  This  rather  than  intellec- 
tual inferiority  explains  the  lack  of  social  sympathy,  the  presence 
of  such  barbarous  institutions  as  cannibaHsm  and  slavery,  the  1 
low  position  of  woman,  inefficiency  in  the  industrial  and  me- 
chanical arts,  the  low  type  of  group  morals,  rudimentary  art- 
sense,  lack  of  race-pride  and  self-assertiveness,  and  in  intellec- 
tual and  religious  life  largely  synonymous  with  fetishism  and 
sorcery."  ^ 

An  elementary  knowledge  of  the  history  of  Africa,  or  the  more 
recent  and  much-quoted  example  of  Haiti,  is  sufficient  to  prove 
^  Mecklin,  op.  cU.,  p.  32. 


284 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


^ 


that  the  Negro's  own  social  heritage  is  at  a  level  far  below  that 
of  the  whites  among  whom  he  is  living  in  the  United  States. 
No  matter  how  much  one  may  admire  some  of  the  Negro's  in- 
dividual traits,  one  must  admit  that  his  development  of  group 
traits  is  primitive,  and  suggests  a  mental  development  wliich  is 
also  primitive. 

If  the  number  of  original  contributions  which  it  has  made  to 
the  world's  civilization  is  any  fair  criterion  of  the  relative  value 
of  a  race,  then  the  Negro  race  must  be  placed  very  near  zero  on 
the  scale.  ^ 

The  following  historical  considerations  suggest  that  in  com- 
parison with  some  other  races  the  Negro  race  is  germinally 
lacking  in  the  higher  developments  of  intelligence: 

1.  That  the  Negro  race  in  Africa  has  never,  by  its  own  initi- 
ative, risen  much  above  barbarism,  although  it  has  been  ex- 
posed to  a  considerable  range  of  environments  and  has  had 
abundant  time  in  which  to  bring  to  expression  any  inherited 
traits  it  may  possess. 

2.  That  when  transplanted  to_a^neHi„emdrQiiij]^nt — say, 
Haiti — and  left  to  its  own  resources,  the  Negro  race  has  shown 
the  same  inability  to  rise;  it  has  there,  indeed,  lost  most  of  what 
it  had  acquired  from  the  superior  civilization  of  the  French. 

3.  That  when  placed  side  by  side  with  the  white  race,  the 
Negro  race  again  fails  to  come  up  to  their  standard,  or  indeed  to 
come  anywhere  near  it.  It  is  often  alleged  that  this  third  test 
is  an  unfair  one;  that  the  social  heritage  of  slavery  must  be 
eliminated  before  the  Negro  can  be  expected  to  show  his  true 
worth.  But  contrast  his  career  in  and  after  slavery  with  that  of 
the  Mamelukes  of  Egypt,  who  were  slaves,  but  slaves  of  good 
stock.  They  quickly  rose  to  be  the  real  rulers  of  the  country. 
Again,  compare  the  record  of  the  Greek  slaves  in  the  Roman 
republic  and  empire  or  that  of  the  Jews  under  Islam.  Without 
pushing  these  analogies  too  far,  is  not  one  forced  to  conclude 

'  The  Negro's  contribution  has  perhaps  been  most  noteworthy  in  music.  This 
does  not  necessarily  show  advanced  evolution;  August  Weismann  long  ago  pointed 
out  that  music  is  a  primitive  accomplishment.  For  an  outline  of  what  the  Negro 
race  has  achieved,  particularly  in  America,  see  the  Negro  Year  Book,  Tuskegee  In- 
stitute, Ala. 


THE  COLOR  LINE  285 

that  the  Negro  lacks  in  his  germ-plasm  excellence  of  some  quali- 
ties which  the  white  races  possess,  and  which  are  essential  for 
success  in  competition  with  the  civilizations  of  the  white  races   . 
at  the  present  day? 

If  so,  it  must  be  admitted  not  only  that  the  Negro  is  different 
from  the  white,  but  that  he  is  in  the  large  eugenically  inferior 
to  the  white. 

This  conclusion  is  based  on  the  relative  achievements  of  the 
race;  it  must  be  tested  by  the  more  precise  methods  of  the  an- 
thropological laboratory.  Satisfactory  studies  of  the  Negro 
should  be  much  more  numerous,  but  there  are  a  few  informative 
ones.    Physical  characters  are  first  to  be  considered. 

As  a  result  of  the  careful  measurement  of  many  skulls,  Kart — -tt — ' 
Pearson  ^  has  come  to  the  following  conclusions:  '  hy*>-c^ 

"There  is  for  the  best  ascertainable  characters  a  continuous  

relationship  from  the  European  skull,  through  prehistoric  Eu-  ^-/mo*-.  CuU 

ropean,  prehistoric  Egyptian,  Congo-Gaboon  Negroes  to  Zulus  

and  Kafirs. 

"The  indication  is  that  of  a  long  differentiated  evolution,  in      C  Jr     ty 
which  the  Negro  lies  nearer  to  the  cominon  stem  than  the  Eu-       -^  ^'^"'^<*- 
ropean;  he  is  nearer  to  the  childhood  of  man." 

This  does  not  prove  any  mental  inferiority:  there  is  little  or 
no  relation  between  conformation  of  skull  and  mental  qualities, 
and  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  make  hasty  inferences  from  physical 
to  mental  traits.  Bean  and  Mall  have  made  studies  directly  on 
the  brain,  but  it  is  not  possible  to  draw  any  sure  conclusions 
from  their  work.  A.  Hrdlicka  found  physical  differences  be- 
tween the  two  races,  but  did  not  study  traits  of  any  particular 
eugenic  significance.  

On  the  whole,  the  studies  of  physical  anthropologists  offer  "TKuJ-sa 
little  of  interest  for  the  present  purpose.     Studies  of  mental    1^    . 

traits  are  more  to  the  point,  but  are  unfortunately  vitiated  in      ' — 

many  cases  by  the  fact  that  no  distinction  was  made  betweeii. 
full-blood  Negroes  and  mulaltocs,  uRhough  the  presence  of 
white  blood  must  necessarily  have  a  marked  influence  on  the 
traits  under  consideration.    If  the  investigations  are  discounted 

'  Social  Problems;  Their  Trealmenl,  Past,  Present  and  Future,  p.  8,  London,  1912. 


286  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

when  necessary  for  this  reason,  it  appears  that  in  the  more  ele- 
mentary mental  processes  the  two  races  are  approximately  equal. 
White  and  "colored"  children  in  the  Washington,  D.  C,  schools 
ranked  equally  well  in  memory;  the  colored  children  were  found 
to  be  somewhat  the  more  sensitive  to  heat.^  Summing  up  the 
available  evidence,  G.  O.  Ferguson  concludes  that  "in  the  so- 
called  lower  traits  there  is  no  great  difference  between  the  Negro^ 
and  the  white.  In  motor  capacity  there  is  probably  no  appreci- 
able racial  difference.  In  sense  capacity,  in  perceptive  and  dis- 
criminative ability,  there  is  likewise  a  practical  equality." 

This  is  what  one  would,  a  priori,  probably  expect.  But  it  is 
on  the  "higher"  mental  functions  that  race  progress  largely 
depends,  and  the  Negro  must  be  judged  eugenically  mainly 
by  his  showing  in  these  higher  functions.  One  of  the  first 
studies  in  this  line  is  that  of  M.  J.  Mayo,^  who  smnmarizes  it  as 
follows: 

"The  median  age  of  white  pupils  at  the  time  of  entering  high 

JJ  ^G, school  in  the  city  of  New  York  is  14  years  6  months:  of  colored 

^\^         y    pupils  15  years  i  month — a.  difference  of  7  months.    The  average 

/  /7|i>       deviation  for  whites  is   9    months;   for    colored   15   months. 

Twenty-seven  per  cent  of  the  whites  are  as  old  as  the  median 

age  of  the  colored  or  older.' 

"  Colored  pupils  remain  in  school  a  greater  length, pf  timp  than 
do  the  whites.  For  the  case  studied  [150  white  and  150  colored], 
the  average  time  spent  in  high  school  for  white  pupils  was  3.8 
terms;  for  colored  4.5  terms.  About  28%  of  the  whites  attain 
the  average  time  of  attendance  for  colored. 

"  Considering  the  entire  ^holasjLic  jecgrdj,  the  median  mark 
of  the  150  white  pupils  is_^;  of  the  150  colored  pupils  62;  a 
difference  of  4%.  The  average  deviation  of  white  pupils  is 
7;  of  colored  6.5.  Twenty-nine  per  cent,  of  the  colored  pupils 
reach  or  surpass  the  median  mark  of  the  whites. 

"The  white  pupils  have  a  higher  average  standing  in  all  sub- 

'Stetson,  G.  R.,  "Memory  Tests  on  Black  and  White  Children,"  Psych.  Rev., 
1897,  p.  285.    See  also  MacDonald,  A.,  in  Rep.  U.  S.  Comm.  of  Educ.,  i8q7-q8. 

*  Mayo,  M.  J.,  "The  Mental  Capacity  of  the  American  Negro,"  Arch,  of  Psych., 
No.  28. 


THE  COLOR  LINE  287 

jects  .  .  .  the  colored  pupils  are  about  ^  as  efficient  as  the 
whites  in  the  pursuit  of  high  school  studies." 

This  whole  investigation  is  probably  much  too  favorable  to 
the  Negro  race,  first  because  Negro  high  school  pupils  represent 
amore  careful  selection  than  do  the  white  pupils;  but  most  \ 
of  all  because  no  distinction  was  made  between  Negroes  and 
mulattoes. 

B.  A.  Phillips,  studying  the  public  elementary  schools  of 
Philadelphia,  found  ^  that  the  percentage  of  retardation  in  the 
colored  schools  ranged  from  72.8  to  58.2,  while  the  percentage 
of  retardation  in  the  districts  which  contained  the  schools 
ranged  from  45.1  to  33.3.  The  average  percentage  of  retarda- 
tion for  the  city  as  a  whole  was  40.3.  Each  of  the  colored  schools 
had  a  greater  percentage  ofjelardationjhan  any  oLthejvdlite 
schools,  even  those  composed  almost  entirely  of  foreigners,  and 
in  those  schools  attended  by  both  white  and  colored  pupils 
the  percentage  of  retardation  on  the  whole  varied  directly  with 
the  percentage  of  colored  pupils  in  attendance. 

These  facts  might  be  interpreted  in  several  ways.  It  might 
be  that  the  curriculum  was  not  well  adapted  to  the  colored 
children,  or  that  they  came  from  bad  home  environments,  or 
that  they  differed  in  age,  etc.  Dr.  Phillips  accordingly  under- 
took to  get  further  light  on  the  cause  of  retardation  of  the 
colored  pupils  by  applying  Binet  tests  to  white  and  colored 
children  of  the  same  chronological  age  and  home  conditions, 
and  found  "a  difference  in  the  acceleration  between  the  two 
races  of  31%  in  favor  of  the  white  boys,  25%  in  favor  of  the 
white  girls,  28%  in  favor  of  the  white  pupils  with  boys  and  girls 
combined." 

A.  C.  Strong,  using  the  Binet-Simon  tests,  found  ^  colored 
school  children  of  Columbia,  S.  C,  considerably  less  intelligent 
than  white  children. 

W.  H.  Pyle  made  an  extensive  test '  of  408  colored  pupils  in 

^  Phillips,  B.  A.,  "Retardation  in  the  Elementary  Schools  of  Philadelphia,"  Psych. 
Clinic,  VI,  pp.  79-90;  "The  Binet  Tests  Applied  to  Colored  Children,"  ibid.,  VIII, 
pp.  190-196. 

2  Strong,  A.  C,  Fed.  Sent.,  XX,  pp.  485-515. 

'  Pyle,  W.  H.,  "The  Mind  of  the  Negro  Child,"  School  and  Society,  I,  pp.  357-360. 


/c 


288  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Missouri  public  schools  and  compared  them  with  white  pupils. 
He  concludes:  "In  general  the  marks  indicating  mental  ability 
of  the  Negro  are  about  two-thirds  those  of  the  whites.  ...  In 
the  substitution,  controlled  association,  and  Ebbinghaus  tests, 
the  Negroes  are  less  than  half  as  good  as  the  whites.  In  free 
association  and  the  ink-blot  tests  they  are  nearly  as  good.  In 
quickness  of  perception  and  discrimination  and  in  reaction,  the 
Negroes  equal  or  excel  the  whites." 

"Perhaps  the  most  important  question  that  arises  in  connec- 
tion with  the  results  of  these  mental  tests  is:  How  far  is  ability 
to  pass  them  dependent  on  environmental  conditions?  Our 
tests  show  certain  specific  differences  between  Negroes  and 
whites.  What  these  differences  would  have  been  had  the  Ne- 
groes been  subject  to  the  same  environmental  influences  as  the 
whites,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  The  results  obtained  by  separating 
the  Negroes  into  two  social  groups  would  lead  one  to  think  that 
the  conditions  of  life  under  which  the  negroes  live  might  account 
for  the  lower  mentahty  of  the  Negroes.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
may  be  that  the  Negroes  living  under  better  social  conditions 
are  of  better  stock.    They  may  have  more  white  blood  in  them." 

The  most  careful  study  yet  made  of  the  relative  intelligence 
of  Negroes  and  whites  is  that  of  G.  O.  Ferguson,  Jr.,^  on  486 
white  and  421  colored  pupils  in  the  schools  of  Richmond,  Freder- 
icksburg, and  Newport  News,  Va.  Tests  were  employed  which 
required  the  use  of  the  "higher"  functions,  and  as  far  as  pos- 
sible (mainly  on  the  basis  of  skin-color)  the  amount  of  white 
blood  in  the  colored  pupils  was  determined.  Four  classes  were 
made:  full-blood  Negro,  ^  Negro,  \'2  Negro  (mulatto)  and  3<^ 
Negro  (quadroon).  It  was  found  that  "  the  pure  Negroes  scored 
69.2%  as  high  as  the  whites;  that  the  %  pure  Negroes  scored 
73.2%  as  high  as  the  whites;  that  the  mulattoes  scored  81.2% 
as  high  as  the  whites;  and  that  the  quadroons  obtained  91.8%  of 
the  white  score."  This  confirms  the  belief  of  many  observers 
that  the  ability  of  a  colored  man  is  proportionate  to  the  amount 
of  white  blood  he  has. 


^  Ferguson,  G.  O.,  Jr.,  "The  Psychology  of  the  Negro,"  Arch,  of  Psych.  No.  36, 
April,  1916. 


THE  COLOR  LINE  289 

Summarizing  a  large  body  of  evidence,  Dr,  Ferguson  concludes 
that  "the  intellectual  performance  of  the  general  colored  pop- 
ulation is  approximately  75%  as  efficient  as  that  of  the  whites," 
but  that  pure  Negroes  have  only  60%  of  white  intellectual  ef- 
ficiency, and  that  even  this  figure  is  probably  too  high.  "It 
seems  as  though  the  white  type  has  attained  a  higher  level  of 
development,  based  upon  the  common  elementary  capacities, 
which  the  Negro  has  not  reached  to  the  same  degree."  "All 
of  the  experimental  work  which  has  been  done  has  pointed  to  the 
same  general  conclusion." 

This  is  a  conclusion  of  much  definiteness  and  value,  but  it 
does  not  go  as  far  as  one  might  wish,  for  the  deeper  racial 
differences  of  impulse  and  inhibition,  which  are  at  present  in- 
capable of  precise  measurement,  are  likewise  of  great  importance. 
And  it  is  the  common  opinion  that  the  Negro  differs  in  such 
traits  even  more  than  in  intellect  proper.  He  is  said  to  be  lack- 
ing in  that  aggressive  competitiveness  which  has  been  responsible 
for  so  much  of  the  achievement  of  the  Nordic  race;  it  is  alleged 
that  his  sexual  impulses  are  strongly  developed  and  inhibitions 
lacking;  that  he  has  "an  instability  of  character,  involving  a  lack 
of  foresight,  an  improvidence,  a  lack  of  persistence,  small  power 
of  serious  initiative,  a  tendency  to  be  content  with  immediate 
satisfactions."    He  appears  to  be  more  gregarious  but  less  apt  j    — 

at  organization  than  most  races.  >r^  Y^c^h 

The   significance   of   these   differences   depends   largely  ^a  *  \i 

whether_thev  are  germinal,  or  merely  the  results  of  social  tradi-  V-^I^J^^-— — 
tion.  In  favor  of  the  view  that  they  are  in  large  part  racial 
and  hereditary,  is  the  fact  that  they  persist  in  all  environments. 
They  are  found,  as  Professor  Mecklin  says,  "Only  at  the  lower 
level  of  instinct,  impulse  and  temperament,  and  do  not,  there- 
fore, admit  of  clear  definition  because  they  are  overlaid  in  the 
case  of  every  individual  with  a  mental  superstructure  gotten 
from  the  social  heritage  which  may  vary  widely  in  the  case  of 
members  of  the  same  race.  That  they  do  persist,  however,  is 
evidenced  in  the  case  of  the  Negroes  subjected  to  the  very 
different  types  of  civilization  in  Haiti,  Santo  Domingo,  the 
United  States,  and  Jamaica.    In  each  of  these  cases  a  complete 


290 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


/ 


'^V- 


break  has  been  made  with  the  social  traditions  of  Africa  and 
different  civilizations  have  been  substituted,  and  yet  in  tempera- 
ment and  character  the  Negro  in  all  these  countries  is  essentially 
the  same.  The  so-called  'reversion  to  type'  often  pointed  out 
in  the  Negro  is  in  reality  but  the  recrudescence  of  fundamental, 
unchanged  race  traits  upon  the  partial  breakdown  of  the  social 
heritage  or  the  Negro's  failure  successfully  to  appropriate  it." 

Again,  as  Professor  Ferguson  points  out,  the  experimental 
tests  above  cited  may  be  thought  to  give  some  support  to  the 
idea  that  the  emotional  characteristics  of  the  Negro  are  really 
inherent.  "Strong  and  changing  emotions,  an  improvident 
character  and  a  tendency  to  immoral  conduct  are  not  unallied," 
he  explains;  "They  are  all  rooted  in  uncontrolled  impulse.  And 
a  factor  which  may  tend  to  produce  all  three  is  a  deficient  devel- 
opment of  the  more  purely  intellectual  capacities.  Where  the 
implications  of  the  ideas  are  not  apprehended,  where  thought  is 
not  lively  and  fertile,  where  meanings  and  consequences  are 
not  grasped,  the  need  for  the  control  of  impulse  will  not  be  felt. 
And  the  demonstrable  deficiency  of  the  Negro  in  intellectual 
traits  may  involve  the  dynamic  deficiencies  which  common 
opinion  claims  to  exist." 

There  are  other  racial  and  heritable  differences  of  much 
importance,  which  are  given  too  little  recognition — namely,  the 
differences  of  disease  resistance.  Here  one  can  speak  unhes- 
itatingly of  a  real  inferiority  in  respect  to  the  environment  of 
North  AmericcC^^ 

As  was  pointed  out  in  the  chapter  on  Natural  Selection,  the 
Negro  has  been  subjected  to  lethal  selection  for  centuries  by 
theNegro  diseases,  the  diseases  of  tropical  Africa,  of  which 
malaria  and  yellow  fever  are  the  most  conspicuous  examples. 
The  Negro  is  strongly  resistant  to  these  and  can  live  where 
the  white  man  dies.  The  white  man,  on  the  other  hand,  has 
his  own  diseases,  of  which  tuberculosis  is  an  excellent  example. 
Compared  with  the  Negro,  he  is  relatively  resistant  to  phthisis 
and  will  survive  where  the  Negro  dies. 

When  the  two  races  are  living  side  by  side,  it  is  obvious  that 
each  is  proving  a  menace  to  the  other,  by  acting  as  a  disseminatot 


THE  COLOR  LINE  291 

of  infection.  The  white  man  kills  the  Negro  with  tuberculosis 
and  typhoid  fever.  In  North  America  the  Negro  can  not  kill 
the  white  man  with  malaria  or  yellow  fever,  to  any  great  extent, 
because  these  diseases  do  not  flourish  here.  But  the  Negro  has 
brought  some  other  diseases  here  and  given  them  to  the  white 
race;  elephantiasis  is  one  example,  but  the  most  conspicuous  is 
hookworm,  the  extent  and  seriousness  of  which  have  only 
recently  been  realized. 

In  the  New  England  states  the  average  expectation  of  life, 
at  birth,  is  50.6  years  for  native  white  males,  34.1  years  for 
Negro  males.  For  native  white  females  it  is  54.2  years  and  for 
Negro  females  37.7  years,  according  to  the  Bureau  of  the 
Census  (19 16).  These  very  considerable  differences  can  not  be 
wholly  explained  away  by  the  fact  that  the  Negro  is  crowded  into 
parts  of  the  cities  where  the  sanitation  is  worst.  They  indicate 
that  the  Negro  is  out  of  his  environinent.  In  tropical  Africa, 
to  which  the  Negro  is  adapted  by  many  centuries  of  natural 
selection,  his  expectation  of  life  might  be  much  longer  than  that 
of  the  white  man.  In  the  United  States  he  is  much  less  "fit,"  in 
the  Darwinian  sense. 

In  rural  districts  of  the  South,  according  to  C.  W.  Stiles,  the 
annual  typhoid  death  rate  per  100,000  population  is: 


-'^  Whites  Negroes 

Males 37.4  75.3 

Females 27.4  56 . 3 

These  figures  again  show,  not  alone  the  greater  intelligence  of 
the  white  in  matters  of  hygiene,  but  probably  also  the  greater 
inherent  resistance  of  the  white  to  a  disease  which  has  been 
attacking  him  for  many  centuries.  Biologically,  North  Amer- 
ica is  a  white  man's  country,  not  a  Negro's  country,  and  those 
who  are  considering  the  Negro  problem  must  remember  that 
natural  selection  has  not  ceased  acting  on  man. 
'  From  the  foregoing  different  kinds  of  evidence,  we  feel  justi- 
fied in  concluding  that  the  Negro  race  differs  greatly  from  the 
white  race,  mentally  as  well  as  physically,  and  that  in  many 
respects  it  may  be  said  to  be  inferior,  when  tested  by  the  re- 


292  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

quirements  of  modern  civilization  and  progress,  with  particular 
reference  to  North  America. 

We  return  now  to  the  question  of  intermarriage.  What  is  to  be 
expected  from  the  union  of  these  diverse  streams  of  descent? 

The  best  answer  would  be  to  study  and  measure  the  mulattoes 
and  their  posterity,  in  as  many  ways  as  possible.  No  one  has 
ever  done  this.  It  is  the  custom  to  make  no  distinction  whatever 
between  mulatto  and  Negro,  in  the  United  States,  and  thus  the 
whole  problem  is  beclouded. 

There  is  some  evidence  from  life  insurance  and  medical 
sources,  that  the  mulatto  stands  above  the  Negro  but  below  the 
white  in  respect  to  his  health.  There  is  considerable  evidence 
that  he  occupies  the  same  relation  in  the  intellectual  world;  it  is  a 
matter  of  general  observation  that  nearly  all  the  leaders  of  the 
Negro  race  in  the  United  States  are  not  Negroes  but  mulattoes.^ 

Without  going  into  detail,  we  feel  perfectly  safe  in  drawing 
this  conclusion:  that  in  general  the  white  race  loses  and  the 
Ne^:Q^ins  from  miscegenation.  ~~ 

This  applies,  of  course,  only  to  Ihe  germinal  nature.  Taking 
into  consideration  the  present  social  conditions  in  America,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  either  race  gains.  But  if  social  conditions  be 
eliminated  for  the  moment,  biologists  may  believe  that  inter- 
marriage between  the  white  and  Negro  races  represents,  on  the 
whole,  an  advance  for  the  Negro;  and  that  it  represents  for  the 
white  race  a  distinct  loss. 

If  eugenics  is  to  be  thought  of  solely  in  terms  of  the  white 
race,  there  can  be  no  hesitation  about  rendering  a  verdict.  We 
must  unhesitatingly  condemn  miscegenation. 

But  there  are  those  who  declare  that  it  is  small  and  mean  to 
take  such  a  narrow  view  of  the  evolution  of  the  race.  They 
would  have  America  open  its  doors  indiscriminately  to  immi- 
gration, holding  it  a  virtue  to  sacrifice  one's  self  permanently  for 
someone  else's  temporary  happiness;  they  would  equally  have 
the  white  race  sacrifice  itself  for  the  Negro,  ^by  allowing  a 
mingling  of  the  two  blood-gtreams.  That,  it  is  alleged,  is  the 
true  way  to  elevate  the  Negro. 
"  The  question  may  well  be  considered  from  that  point  of  view, 


THE  COLOR  LINE  293 

even  though  the  validity  of  such  a  point  of  view  is  not  ad-  (J  ^1^ 
mitted.  - 

To  ensure  racial  and  social  progress,  nothing  will  take  the  C 

place  of  leadership,  of  genius.  A  race  of  nothing  but  medioc- 
rities will  stand  still,  or  very  nearly  so;  but  a  race  of  medioc- 
rities with  a  good  supply  of  men  of  exceptional  ability  and  energy 
at  the  top,  will  make  progress  in  discovery,  invention  and  organ- 
ization, which  is  generally  recognized  as  progressive  evolution. 

If  the  level  of  the  white  race  be  lowered,  it  will  hurt  that  race 
and  be  of  little  help  to  the  Negro.  If  the  white  race  be  kept  at 
such  a  level  that  its  productivity  of  men  of  talent  will  be  at  a 
maximum,  everyone  will  progress;  for  the  Negro  benefits  just  as 
the  white  does  from  every  forward  step  in  science  and  art,  in 
industry  and  politics. 

Remembering  that  the  white  race  in  America  is  nine  times  as 
numerous  as  the  black  race,  we  conclude  that  it  would  be  de- 
sirable to  encourage  amalgamation  of  the  two  races  only  in  case 
the  average  of  mulattoes  is  superior  to  the  average  of  the 
whites.  No  one  can  seriously  maintain  that  this  supposi- 
tion is  true.  Biologically,  therefore,  there  is  no  reason  to  think 
that  an  increase  in  the  niunber  of  mulattoes  is  desirable. 

There  is  a  curious  argument  In  circulation,  which  points  out 
that  mulattoes  are  almost  always  the  offspring  o£  Negro  mothers 
and  white  fathers,  not  of  Negro  fathers  and  white  mothers. 
Therefore,  it  is  said,  production  of  mulattoes  does  not  mean  at 
all  a  decrease  in  the  number  of  white  births,  but  merely  sub- 
stitutes a  number  of  mulatto  births  for  an  equivalent  number  of 
M  '  pure  Negro  births.    It  is  therefore  alleged  that  the  production 

. 6f  mulattoes  is  in  the  long  run  a  benefit,  elevating  the  Negro 

race  without  impairing  the  white  race. 

But  this  argument  assumes  that  most  mulatto  births  are 
illegitimate, — a  condition  which  eugenists  do  not  sanction, 
because  it  tends  to  disintegrate  the  family.  Rather  than  such  a 
condition,  the  legitimate  production  of  pure-blood  Negroes  is 
preferable,  even  though  they  be  inferior  in  individual  ability 
to  the  illegitimate  mulattoes  offered  as  a  substitute.  There  are 
not  at  the  present  time  enough  desirable  white  fathers  in  the 


294  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

country.  If  desirable  ones  are  set  aside  to  produce  mulattoes, 
it  would  be  a  great  loss  to  the  nation;  while  if  the  mulattoes  are 
the  offspring  of  eugenically  undesirable  white  fathers,  then  the 
product  is  not  likely  to  be  anything  America  wants. 

From  whatever  standpoint  we  take,  we  see  nothing  good  to 
be  said  for  miscegenation.^  We  have  discussed  the  problem 
as  a  particular  one  between  the  blacks  and  whites  but  the  ar- 
gument will  hold  good  when  applied  to  any  two  races  between 
which  the  differences  are  so  marked  that  one  may  be  considered 
ecidely  inferior  to  the  other. 

Society, — ^white  society, — long  ago  reached  the  instinctive  con- 
clusion, which  seems  to  us  a  correct  one,  that  it  must  put  a  ban 
on  intermarriage  between  two  such  races.  It  has  given  expres- 
sion to  this  feeling  by  passing  laws  to  prohibit  miscegenation 
in  22  states,  while  six  other  states  prohibit  it  in  their  constitu- 
tions. There  are  thus  22  states  which  have  attempted  legally 
to  prevent  intermarriage  of  the  white  and  black  race.  While  in 
20  states  there  is  no  law  on  the  subject,  it  is  needless  to  say  that 
popular  feeling  about  it  is  almost  uniform,  and  that  the  legis- 
lators of  New  England  for  instance  would  refuse  to  give  their 
daughters  in  marriage  to  Negroes,  even  though  they  might  the 
day  before  have  voted  down  a  proposed  law  to  prohibit  inter- 
marriage on  the  ground  that  it  was  an  expression  of  race  prej- 
udice. 

In  a  majority  of  the  states  which  have  no  legislation  of  this 
kind,  bills  have  been  introduced  during  the  last  two  or  three 
years,  and  have  been  defeated  through  the  energetic  interfer- 
ence of  the  National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored 
People,  an  organization  of  which  Oswald  Garrison  Villard  is 

1  Though  the  Negro  is  not  assimilable,  he  is  here  to  stay;  he  should  therefore 
be  helped  to  develop  along  his  own  lines.  It  is  desirable  not  to  subject  him  to  too 
severe  a  competition  with  whites;  yet  such  competition,  acting  as  a  stimulus,  is 
probably  responsible  for  part  of  his  rapid  progress  during  the  last  century,  a  progress ' 
which  would  not  have  been  possible  in  a  country  where  Negroes  competed  only 
with  each  other.  The  best  way  to  temper  competition  is  by  differentiation  of  func- 
tion, but  this  principle  should  not  be  carried  to  the  extent  of  pocketing  the  Negro 
in  blind-alley  occupations  where  development  is  impossible.  As  mental  tests  show 
him  to  be  less  suited  to  literary  education  than  are  the  whites,  it  seems  likely  that 
agriculture  offers  the  best  field  for  him. 


THE  COLOR  LINE  295 

chairman  of  the  Board  of  Directors  and  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  a 
brilliant  mulatto,  is  Director  of  Publicity  and  Research.  As 
this  association  represents  a  very  large  part  of  the  more  intel- 
ligent Negro  public  opinion,  its  attitude  deserves  careful  con- 
sideration. It  is  set  forth  summarily  in  a  letter  ^  which  was 
addressed  "to  legislators  in  various  states,  as  follows: 

"The  National  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored 
People  earnestly  protests  against  the  bill  forbidding  intermar- 
riage between  the  races,  not  because  the  Association  advocates 
intermarriage,  which  it  does  not,  but  primarily  because  when- 
ever such  laws  have  been  enacted  they  have  become  a  menace 
to  the  whole  institution  of  matrimony,  leading  directly  to  con- 
cubinage, bastardy,  and  the  degradation  of  the  Negro  woman. 
No  man-made  law  can  stop  the  union  of  the  races.  If  inter- 
marriage be  wrong,  its  prevention  is  best  left  to  public  opinion 
and  to  nature,  which  wreaks  its  own  fearful  punishments  on 
those  who  transgress  its  laws  and  sin  against  it.  We  oppose 
the  proposed  statute  in  the  language  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison 
in  1843,  in  his  successful  campaign  for  the  repeal  of  a  similar 
law  in  Massachusetts:  'Because  it  is  not  the  province,  and  does 
not  belong  to  the  power  of  any  legislative  assembly,  in  a  re- 
publican government,  to  decide  on  the  complexional  affinity 
of  those  who  choose  to  be  united  together  in  wedlock;  and  it  may 
as  rationally  decree  that  corpulent  and  lean,  tall  and  short, 
strong  and  weak  persons  shall  not  be  married  to  each  other  as 
that  there  must  be  an  agreement  in  the  complexion  of  the 
parties.' 

"We  oppose  it  for  the  physical  reason  that  to  prohibit  such 
intermarriage  would  be  publicly  to  acknowledge  that  black  blood 
is  a  physical  taint,  something  no  self-respecting  colored  man 
and  woman  can  be  asked  to  admit.  We  oppose  it  for  the  moral 
reason  that  all  such  laws  leave  the  colored  girl  absolutely  helpless 
before  the  lust  of  the  white  man,  without  the  power  to  compel 
the  seducer  to  marry.    The  statistics  of  intermarriage  in  those 

^  This  letter,  and  much  of  the  data  regarding  the  legal  status  of  Negro-white 
amalgamation,  are  from  an  article  by  Albert  Ernest  Jenks  in  the  Am.  Journ.  Sociology, 
XXI,  5,  pp.  666-679,  March,  1916. 


-% 


296  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

states  where  it  is  permitted  show  this  happens  sd  infrequently 
as  to  make  the  whole  matter  of  legislation  unnecessary.  Both 
races  are  practically  in  complete  agreement  on  this  question, 
for  colored  people  marry  colored  people,  and  white  marry 
whites,  the  exceptions  being  few.  We  earnestly  urge  upon  you 
an  unfavorable  report  on  this  bill." 

Legislation  on  the  subject  of  marriage  is  clearly  inside  the 
province  of  government.  That  such  an  argument  as  is  quoted 
from  William  Lloyd  Garrison  can  still  be  circulated  in  the  United 
States  and  apparently  carry  weight,  is  sufficient  cause  for  one  to 
feel  pessimistic  over  the  spread  of  the  scientific  spirit  in  this 
nation.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  on  this  point  the  National  Associa- 
tion is  a  century  behind  the  times. 

The  following  policy  seems  to  us  to  be  in  accordance  with 
modem  science,  and  yet  meet  all  the  legitimate  argmnents  of  the 
National  Association.  We  will  state  our  attitude  as  definitely 
as  possible: 

1.  We  hold  that  it  is  to  the  interests  of  the  United  States,  for 
the  reasons  given  in  this  chapter,  to  prevent  further  Negro- 
white  amalgamation. 

2.  The  taboo  of  public  opinion  is  not  sufficient  in  all  cases  to 
prevent  intermarriage,  and  should  be  supplemented  by  law, 
particularly  as  the  United  States  have  of  late  years  received 
many  white  immigrants  from  other  countries  (e.  g.,  Italy)  where 
the  taboo  is  weak  because  the  problem  has  never  been  pressing. 

3.  But  to  prevent  intermarriage  is  only  a  small  part  of  the 
solution,  since  most  mulattoes  come  from  extramarital  misce- 
genation. The  only  solution  of  this,  which  is  compatible  with 
the  requirements  of  eugenics,  is  not  that  of  laissezfaire,  suggested 
by  the  National  Association,  but  an  extension  of  the  taboo,  and 
an  extension  of  the  laws,  to  prohibit  all  sexual  intercourse  be- 
tween  the  two  races. 

Four  states  (Louisiana,  Nevada,  South  Dakota  and  Alabama) 
have  already  attempted  to  gain  this  end  by  law.  We  believe 
it  to  be  highly  desirable  that  such  laws  should  be  enacted  and 
enforced  by  all  states.  A  necessary  preliminary  would  be  to 
standardize  the  laws  all  over  the  Union,  particularly  with  a  view 


THE  COLOR  LINE  297 

to  agreement  on  what  a  "Negro"  legally  is;  for  in  some  states 
the  legislation  applies  to  one  who  is  one-sixteenth,  or  even  less, 
Negro  in  descent,  while  in  other  states  it  appears  to  refer  only 
to  full-blood  or,  at  the  most,  half-blood  individuals. 

Such  legislation,  and  what  is  more  important,  such  public 
opinion,  leading  to  a  cessation  of  Negro-white  amalgamation, 
we  believe  to  be  in  the  interests  of  national  eugenics,  and  to 
further  the  welfare  of  both  of  the  races  involved.  Miscegena- 
tion can  only  lead  to  unhappiness  under  present  social  conditions 
and  must,  we  believe,  under  any  social  conditions  be  biologically 
wrong. 

We  favor,  therefore,  the  support  of  the  taboo  which  society 
has  placed  on  these  mixed  marriages,  as  well  as  any  legal  action 
which  can  practicably  be  taken  to  make  miscegenation  between 
white  and  black  impossible.  Justice  requires  that  the  Negro 
race  be  treated  as  kindly  and  considerately  as  possible,  with 
every  economic  and  political  concession  that  is  consistent  with 
the  continued  welfare  of  the  nation.  Such  social  equality  and 
intercourse  as  might  lead  to  marriage  are  not  compatible  with 
this  welfare. 


CHAPTER  XV 
IMMIGRATION 

There  are  now  in  the  United  States  some  14,000,000  foreign- 
bom  persons,  together  with  other  millions  of  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  foreigners  who  although  bom  on  American  soil 
have  as  yet  been  little  assimilated  to  Americanism.  This  great 
body  of  aliens,  representing  perhaps  a  fifth  of  the  population,  is 
not  a  pool  to  be  absorbed,  but  a  continuous,  inflowing  stream, 
which  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War  was  steadily  increas- 
ing in  volume,  and  of  which  the  fountain-head  is  so  inexhaustible 
as  to  appal  the  imagination.  From  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 
tury, the  inflow  averaged  little  less  than  a  million  a  year,  and 
while  about  one-fifth  of  this  represented  a  temporary  migration, 
four-fifths  of  it  meant  a  permanent  addition  to  the  population 
of  the  New  World. 

The  character  of  this  stream  will  inevitably  determine  to  a 
large  extent  the  future  of  the  American  nation.  The  direct 
biological  results,  in  race  mixture,  are  important  enough,  al- 
though not  easy  to  define.  The  indirect  results,  which  are  prob- 
ably of  no  less  importance  to  eugenics,  are  so  hard  to  follow  that 
some  students  of  the  problem  do  not  even  realize  their  existence. 

The  ancestors  of  all  white  Americans,  of  course,  were  immi- 
grants not  so  very  many  generations  ago.  But  the  earlier  im- 
migration was  relatively  homogeneous  and  stringently  selected 
by  the  dangers  of  the  voyage,  the  hardships  of  Hfe  in  a  new 
country,  and  the  equality  of  opportunity  where  free  competition 
drove  the  unfit  to  the  wall.  There  were  few  people  of  eminence 
in  the  families  that  came  to  colonize  North  America,  but  there 
was  a  high  average  of  sturdy  virtues,  and  a  good  deal  of  ability, 
particularly  in  the  Puritan  and  Huguenot  invasions  and  in  a 
part  of  that  of  Virginia. 

In  the  first  three-quarters  of  the  nineteenth  century,   the 

298 


IMMIGRATION  299 

number  of  these  "patriots  and  founders"  was  greatly  increased 
by  the  arrival  of  immigrants  of  similar  racial  stocks  from  Ire- 
land, Germany,  Scandinavia,  and  to  a  less  extent  from  the  other 
countries  of  northern  and  western  Europe.  These  arrivals 
added  strength  to  the  United  States,  particularly  as  a  large 
part  of  them  settled  on  farms. 

This  stream  of  immigration  gradually  dried  up,  but  was  suc- 
ceeded by  a  flood  from  a  new  source, — southern  and  eastern 
Europe.  Italians,  Slavs,  Poles,  Magyars,  East  European  He- 
brews, Finns,  Portuguese,  Greeks,  Roumanians  and  represen- 
tatives of  many  other  small  nationalities  began  to  seek  fortunes 
in  America.  The  earlier  immigration  had  been  made  up  largely 
of  those  who  sought  escape  from  religious  or  political  tyranny 
and  came  to  settle  permanent  homes.  The  newer  immigration 
was  made  up,  on  the  whole,  of  those  who  frankly  sought  wealth. 
The  difference  in  the  reason  for  coming  could  not  fail  to  mean 
a  difference  in  selection  of  the  immigrants,  quite  apart  from  the 
change  in  the  races. 

Last  of  all  began  an  immigration  of  Levantines,  of  Syrians, 
Armenians,  and  other  inhabitants  of  Asiatic  Turkey.  Beyond 
this  region  lie  the  great  nations  of  Asia,  "  oversaturated "  with 
population.  So  far  there  has  been  little  more  than  the  threat 
of  their  overflow,  but  the  threat  is  certain  to  become  a  reality 
within  a  few  years  unless  prevented  by  legal  restriction. 

The  eugenic  results  of  immigration  are  partly  indirect  and 
partly  direct.  Direct  results  follow  if  the  newcomers  are  as- 
similated,— a  word  which  we  shall  use  rather  narrowly  to  mean 
that  free  intermarriage  takes  place  between  them  and  all  parts 
of  the  older  population.  We  shall  discuss  the  direct  results  first, 
the  nature  of  which  depends  largely  on  whether  the  newcomers 
are  racially  homogeneous  with  the  population  already  in  the  « 
couji^:  "  /K^>'^ 


If  they  are  like,  the  old  and  new  will  blend  without  difficulty. 
The  effects  of  the  immigration  then  depend  on  whether  the  im- 
migrants are  better  or  worse  in  average  quality  than  the  older 
residents.  If  as  good  or  better,  they  are  valuable  additions; 
ifjnferior  they  are  biologically  a  detriment. 


-t>— --^X^ 


/l 


n^. 


300  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

But  if  the  new  arrivals  are  different,  if  they  represent  a  differ- 
ent subspecies  of  Romo  sapiens,  the  question  is  more  serious, 
for  it  involves  the  problem  of  crossing  races  which  are  biologic- 
ally more  or  less  distinct.  Genetics  can  throw  some  light  on  this 
problem. 

Waiving  for  the  moment  all  question  as  to  the  relative  quality 
of  two  distinct  races,  what  results  are  to  be  expected  from 
crossing?  It  (i)  giyes-aa-increase  of  jvjgor  which  diminishes 
in  later  generations  and  (2)  produces  recombination  of 
characters. 

/^  The  first  result  may  be  disregarded,  for  the  various  races  of 

man  are  probably  already  much  mixed,  and  too  closely  related, 
to  give  rise  to  much  hybrid  vigor  in  crosses. 

The  second  result  will  be  favorable  or  unfavorablej_d.epending 

MJI  ■  r    ,  /  on  the  characters  which  go  into  the  cross;  and  it  is  not  possible  to 

^W->''*'^'^^redict  the  result  in  human  matings,  because  the  various  racial 

ii^/t*^^^J;^characters  are  so  ill  known.    It  is,  therefore,  not  worth  while 

■"'y        here  to  discuss  at  length  genetic  theory.    In  general  it  may  be 

"^     said  that  some  valuable  characters  are  likely  to  disappear,  as 

the  result  of  such  crosses,  and  less  desirable  ones  to  take  theif 

place.     The  great  bulk  of  the  population  resulting  from  such 

racial  crosses  is  likely  to  be  more  or  less  mongrel  in  nature. 

Finally,  some  individuals  will  appear  who  combine  the  good 

characters  of  the  two  races,  without  the  bad  ones. 

The  net  result  will  therefore  probably  be  some  distinct  gain, 
but  a  greater  loss.  There  is  danger  that  complex  and  valuable 
traits  of  a  race  will  be  broken  do\\Ti  in  the  process  of  hybridiza- 
tion, and  that  it  will  take  a  long  time  to  bring  them  together 
again.  The  old  view  that  racial  crosses  lead  fatally  to  race  de- 
generation is  no  longer  tenable,  but  the  view  recently  advanced, 
that  crosses  are  advantageous,  seems  equally  hasty.  W.  E. 
Castle  has  cited  the  Pitcaim  Islanders  and  the  Boer-Hottentot 
mulattoes  of  South  Africa  as  evidence  that  wide  crosses  are 
productive  of  no  evil  results.  These  cases  may  be  admitted  to 
show  that  such  a  hybrid  race  may  be  physically  healthy,  but 
in  respect  of  mental  traits  they  hardly  do  more  than  suggest 
the  conclusion  we  advanced  in  our  chapter  on  the  Color  Line, — 


IMMIGRATION  301 

that  such  miscegenation  is  an  advantage  to  the  inferior  race  and 
a  disadvantage  to  the  superior  one. 

On  the  whole,  we  beUeve  wide  racial  crosses  should  be  looked 
upon  with  suspicion  by  eugenists. 

The  colonizers  of  North  America  mostly  belonged  to  the 
Nordic_xace.3  .  The  earlier  immigrants  to  the  United  States.-^ 
roughly,  those  who  came  here  before  the  Civil  War, — belonged 
mostly  to  the  same  stock,  and  therefore  mixed  with  the  early 
settlers  without  difficulty.  The  advantages  of  this  immigra- 
tion were  oflEset  by  no  impairment  of  racial  homogeneity. 

But  the  niore  recent  immigration  belongs  mostly  to  other 
races,  principally  the  Mediterranean  and  Alpine^  Even  if  these 
immigrants  were  superior  on  the  average  to  the  older  population, 
it  is  clear  that  their  assimilation  would  not  be  an  unmixed  bless- 
ing, for  the  evil  of  crossbreeding  would  partly  offset  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  addition  of  valuable  new  traits.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  average  of  the  new  immigration  is  inferior  in  quality, 
or  in  so  far  as  it  is  inferior  in  quality,  it  is  evident  that  it  must 
represent  biologically  an  almost  unmixed  evil;  it  not  only  brings 
in  new  undesirable  traits,  but  injures  the  desirable  ones  al- 
ready here.  — , 

E.  A.  Ross  has  attempted  to  predict  some  oj_jthe  changes  that  '21f^^ 
will  take  place  in  the  population  of  the  United  States,  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  immigration  of  the  last  half-century.^  "It  is  reason- 
able," he  thinks,  "to  expect  an  early  falling  off  in  the  frequency 
of  good  looks  in  the  American  people."  A  diminution  of  stature, 
a  depreciation  of  morality,  an  increase  in  gross  fecundity,  and  a 
considerable  lowering  of  the  level  of  average  natural  ability 
are  among  other  results  that  he  considers  probable.  Not  only 
are  the  races  represented  in  the  later  immigration  in  many  cases 
inferior  in  average  ability  to  the  earlier  immigrant  races,  but 
America  does  not  get  the  best,  or  even  a  representative  selection,^ 
from  the  races  which  are  now  contributing  to  her  population. 

1 A  recent  readable  account  of  the  races  of  the  world  is  Madison  Grant's  The 
Passing  of  the  Great  Race  (New  York,  1916). 

2  The  Old  World  in  the  New.  By  E.  A.  Ross,  professor  of  Sociology  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin,  New  York,  1914. 

'  Cf.  Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  The  Amateur  EmigratU. 


302  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

"Europe  retains  most  of  her  brains,  but  sends  multitudes  of  the 
common  and  sub-common.  There  is  little  sign  of  an  intel- 
lectual element  among  the  Magyars,  Russians,  South  Slavs, 
Italians,  Greeks  or  Portuguese"  who  are  now  arriving.  "This 
does  not  hold,  however,  for  currents  created  by  race  discrimina- 
tion or  oppression.  The  Armenian,  Syrian,  Finnish  and  Russo- 
Hebrew  streams  seem  representative,  and  the  first  wave  of  He- 
brews out  of  Russia  in  the  eighties  was  superior." 

While  the  earlier  immigration  brought  a  liberal  amount  of  in- 
telligence and  abiUty,  the  later  immigration  (roughly,  that  of  the 
last  half  century)  seems  to  have  brought  distinctly  less.    It  is 
^     at  present  principally  an  immigration  of  unskilled  labor,  of 
|p     vigorous,  ignorant  peasants.     Some  of  this  is  "promoted"  by 
(y^       agents  of  trajisportatwn_coiiiparues  and  others  who  stand  to 
gain  by  stirring  up  the  population  of  a  country  village  in  Russia 
or  Hungary,  excite  the  illiterate  peasants  by  stories  of  great 
wealth  and  freedom  to  be  gained  in  the  New  World,  provide  the 
immigrant  with  a  ticket  to  New  York  and  start  him  for  Ellis 
Island.     Naturally,  such  immigration  is  predominantly  male. 
On  the  whole,  females  make  up  one-third  of  the  recent  inflow, 
but  among  some  races — Greeks,  Italians  and  Roumanians,  for 
example — only  one-fifth. 

In  amount  of  inherent  ability  these  immigrants  are  not  only 
less  highly  endowed  than  is  desirable,  but  they  furnish,  despite 
weeding  out,  altogether  too  large  a  proportion  of  the  "  three  D's  " 
— defectives,  delinquents  and  dependents.  In  the  single  year 
1914  more  than  33,cx>d  would-be  immigrants  were  turned  back, 
about  half  of  them  because  likely  to  become  public  charges. 
The  immigration  law  of  1907,  amended  in  191  o,  1913  and  191 7, 
excludes  the  following  classes  of  aliens  from  admission  into  the 
United  States: 

Idiots,  imbeciles,  feeble-minded  persons,epileptics,  insane  persons, 
persons  who  have  been  insane  within  5  years  previously;  persons 
who  have  had  two  or  more  attacks  of  insanity  at  any  time  previously 
or  who  are  affected  by  constitutional  psychopathic  inferiority  or 
chronic  alcoholism;  paupers,  vagrants,  persons  likely  to  become  public 
charges ;  professional  beggars,  persons  afflicted  with  tuberculosis  or  wi  th 


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IMMIGRATION  303 

a  loathsome  or  contagious  disease;  persons  who  have  teen  convicted  of 
a  crime  involving  moral  turpitude;  polygamists,  anarchists,  contract 
laborers,  prostitutes,  persons  not  comprehended  within  any  one  of 
the  foregoing  excluded  classes  who  are  found  to  be  and  are  certified 
by  the  examining  surgeon  as  being  mentally  or  physically  defective, 
such  mental  or  physical  defect  being  of  such  a  nature  as  to  affect  the 
abUity  of  the  ahen  to  earn  a  Uving.  ^ 

Despite  the  efficiency  of  the  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service,      ^ /^9^ 
it  is  quite  impossible  for  its  small  staff  to  examine  thoroughly  7 

every  immigrant,  when  three  or  four  thousand  arrive  in 
a  smgle  day,  as  has  frequently  happened  at  Ellis  Island. 
Under  such  circumstances,  the  medical  officer  must  pass  the 
immigrants  with  far  too  cursory  an  inspection.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  many  whose  mental  defects  are  not  of  an  obvious 
nature  manage  to  slip  through;  particularly  if,  as  is  charged,^ 
many  of  the  undesirables  are  informed  that  the  immigrant 
rush  is  greatest  in  March  and  April,  and  therefore  make  it  a 
point  to  arrive  at  that  time,  knowing  the  medical  inspection 
will  be  so  overtaxed  that  they  will  have  a  better  chance  to  get 
by.  The  state  hospitals  of  the  Atlantic  states  are  rapidly  filling 
up  with  foreign-bom  insane.^  Probably  few  of  these  were  pa- 
tently insane  when  they  passed  through  the  port  of  entry.  In- 
sanity, it  must  be  remembered,  is  predominantly  a  disease  of 
old  age,  whereas  the  average  alien  on  arrival  is  not  old.  The 
mental  weakness  appears  only  after  he  has  been  here  some  years, 
perhaps  inevitably  or  perhaps  because  he  finds  his  environment 
in,  say,  lower  Manhattan  Island  is  much  more  taxing  to  the 
brain  than  the  simple  surroundings  of  his  farm  overlooking 
the  bay  of  Naples. 

The  amount  of  crime  attributable  to  certain  sections  of  the 
more  recent  immigration  is  relatively  large.    "It  was  frequently 

^  Interview  with  W.  Williams,  former  commissioner  of  immigration,  in  the  iVew 
York  Herald,  April  13,  191 2. 

^  Of  the  total  number  of  inmates  of  insane  asylums  of  the  entire  U.  S.  of  Jan.  i, 
1910,  28.8%  were  whites  of  foreign  birth,  and  of  the  persons  admitted  to  such  insti- 
tutions during  the  year  1910,  25.5%  were  of  this  class.  Of  the  total  population  of 
the  United  States  in  1910  the  foreign-born  whites  constituted  14.5%.  Special 
report  on  the  insane,  Census  of  igio  (pub.  1914). 


304  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

stated  to  the  members  of  the  Immigration  Commission  in  south- 
em  Italy  that  crime  had  greatly  diminished  in  many  commu- 
nities because  most  of  the  criminals  had  gone  to  America."  The 
amount  of  crime  among  immigrants  in  the  United  States  is 
partly  due  to  their  age  and  sex  distribution,  partly  due  to  their 
concentration  in  cities,  partly  to  the  bad  environment  from 
which  they  have  sometimes  come;  partly  to  inherent  racial 
characteristics,  such  as  make  crimes  of  violence  frequent  among 
the  Southern  Italians,  crimes  of  gain  proportionately  more 
frequent  among  the  J  ews,  and  violence  when  drunk  more  a  char- 
acteristic of  the  Slavs.  No  restriction  of  immigration  can  wholly 
ehminate  the  criminal  tendencies,  but,  says  Dr.  Wame,^  after 
balancing  the  two  sides,  "It  still  remains  true  that  because  of 
immigration  we  have  a  greater  amount  of  pauperism  and 
crime  than  would  be  the  case  if  there  were  no  immigration. 
It  is  also  an  indisputable  fact  that  with  a  better  regulation  of 
immigration  the  United  States  would  have  less  of  these  social 
horrors." 

To  dwell  too  much  on  the  undesirable  character  of  part  of  the 
present  immigration  would  be  to  lose  perspective.  Most  of  it 
consists  of  vigorous,  industrious,  ignorant  peasants,  induced  to 
come  here  in  search  of  a  better  living  than  they  can  get  at  home. 
But  it  is  important  to  remember  that  if  they  come  here  and  stay, 
they  are  pretty  certain  to  be  assimilated  sooner  or  later.  In 
cases  superior  to  the  average  of  the  older  population,  their 
arrival  should  be  welcomed  if  not  too  racially  diverse;  but  if, 
as  we  believe  the  record  of  their  achievements  shows,  a  large 
part  of  the  immigration  is  on  the  average  inferior  to  the  older 
population  of  the  United  States,  such  are  eugenically  a  detriment 
to  the  future  progress  of  the  race.  The^irect_bw]^ogicaJ^esult 
tojbe  expected  from  the  assimilation  of  such  newcomers  is  the 
swamping  of  the  best  characteristics  of  the  old  American  stock, 
and^a  diminution  of  the  average  of  intplligpnrp.  r>f  thp  whnlR 
country. 

The  interbreeding  is  too  slow  at  present  to  be  conspicuous,  and 

'  The  Tide  of  Immigration.  By  Frank  Julian  Warne,  special  expert  on  foreign- 
born  population,  13th  U.  S.  Census,  Nov  York,  1916. 


IMMIGRATION  305 

hence  its  effects  are  little  noticed.  The  foreigners  tend  to  keep 
by  themselves,  to  form  "Little  Italics,"  "Little  Russias," 
transplanted  Ghettoes  and  "foreign  quarters,"  where  they  retain 
their  native  languages  and  customs  and  marry  compatriots. 
This  condition  of  segregation  can  not  last  forever;  the  process  of 
amalgamation  will  be  more  rapid  with  each  generation,  particu- 
larly because  of  the  preponderance  of  males  in  the  newer  immi- 
gration who  must  marry  outside  their  own  race,  if  they  are  to 
marry  at  all. 

The  direct  results  of  immigration  that  lead  to  intermarriage 
with  the  older  population  are  fairly  easy  to  outline.  The  in- 
direct results,  which  we  shall  now  consider,  are  more  complex. 
We  have  dealt  so  far  only  with  the  effects  of  an  immigration  that 
is  assimilated;  but  some  immigration  (that  from  the  Orient,  for 
example)  is  not  assimilated;  other  immigration  remains  un- 
assimilated  for  a  long  time.  What  are  the  eugenic  consequences 
of  an  unassimilated  inrunigration? 

The  presence  of  large  numbers  of  immigrants  who  do  not 
intermarry  with  the  older  stock  will,  says  T.  N.  Carver,^  in- 
evitably mean  one  of  three  things: 

1.  Geographical  separation  of  races. 

2.  Social  separation  of  races  (as  the  "color  line"  in  the  South 
and  to  a  large  extent  in  the  North,  between  Negroes  and  whites 
who  yet  live  side  by  side). 

3.  Continuous  racial  antagonism,  frequently  breaking  out 
into  face  war.  This  third  possibility  has  been  at  least  threat- 
ened, by  the  conflict  between  the  white  and  yellow  races  in 
California,  and  the  conflict  between  whites  and  Hindus  in 
British  Columbia. 

None  of  these  alternatives  is  attractive.  The  third  is  unde- 
sirable in  every  way  4nd  the  first  two  are  difficult  to  maintain. 
The  first  is  perhaps  impossible;  the  second  is  partly  practicable, 
as  is  shown  by  the  case  of  the  Negro.  One  of  its  drawbacks  is 
not  sufficiently  recognized. 

In  a  soundly-organized  society,  it  is  necessary  that  the  road 

^  Essays  in  Social  Justice.  By  Thomas  Nixon  Carver,  professor  of  Political  Econ- 
omy in  Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  1915. 


3o6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

should  be  open  from  top  to  bottom  and  bottom  to  top,  in  order 
that  genuine  merit  may  get  its  deserts.  A  valuable  strain  which 
appears  at  the  bottom  of  the  social  scale  must  be  able  to  make  its 
way  to  the  top,  receiving  financial  and  other  rewards  commen- 
surate with  its  value  to  the  state,  and  being  able  to  produce  a 
number  of  children  proportionate  to  its  reward  and  its  value. 
This  is  an  ideal  which  is  seldom  approximated  in  government, 
but  it  is  the  advantage  of  a  democratic  form  of  government  that 
it  presents  the  open  road  to  success,  more  than  does  an  oli- 
garchic government.  That  this  freedom  of  access  to  all  rewards 
that  the  state  can  give  should  be  open  to  every  one  (and  con- 
versely that  no  one  should  be  kept  at  the  top  and  over-rewarded 
if  he  is  unworthy)  is  essential  to  eugenics;  but  it  is  quite  in- 
compatible with  the  existence  within  the  state  of  a  number  of 
isolated  groups,  some  of  which  must  inevitably  and  properly  be 
considered  inferior.  It  is  certain  that,  at  the  present  time  in  this 
country,  no  Negro  can  take  a  place  in  the  upper  ranks  of  society, 
which  are  and  will  long  remain  white.  The  fact  that  this  situa- 
tion is  inevitable  makes  it  no  less  unfortunate  for  both  Negro 
and  white  races;  consolation  can  only  be  found  in  the  thought 
that  it  is  less  of  a  danger  than  the  opposite  condition  would  be. 
But  this  condition  of  class  discrimination  is  likely  to  exist,  to  a 
much  less  extent  it  is  true,  in  every  city  where  there  are  foreign- 
bom  and  native-born  populations  living  side  by  side,  and  where 
the  epithets  of  "Sheeny,"  ''Dago,"  "Wop,"  "Kike,"  "Greaser," 
"Guinea,"  etc.,  testify  to  the  feeling  of  the  older  population 
that  it  is  superior. 

While  eugenic  strength  in  a  state  is  promoted  by  variety,  too 
great  a  heterogeneitv  offers  serious  social  difficulties.  It  is  essen- 
tial if  America  is  to  be  strong  eugenically  that  it  slow  down  the 
flood  of  immigrants  who  are  not  easily  assimilable.  At  present  a 
state  of  affairs  is  being  created  where  class  distinctions  are  likely 
to  be  barriers  to  the  promotion  of  individual  worth — and  equally, 
of  course,  to  the  demotion  of  individual  worthlessness. 

Even  if  an  immigration  is  not  assimilated,  then,  it  yet  has 
an  indirect  effect  on  eugenics.  But  there  are  other  indirect 
effects  of  immigration,  which  are  quite  independent  of  assimila- 


IMMIGRATION  307 

tion:  they  inhere  in  the  mere  bulk  and  economic  character  of 
the  immigration.  The  arrivals  of  the  past  few  decades  have 
been  nearly  all  unskilled  laborers.  Professor  Carver  believes 
that  continuous  immigration  which  enters  the  ranks  of  labor 
in  larger  proportion  and  the  business  and  professional  classes 
in  a  smaller  proportion  than  the  native-bom  will  produce  the 
following    results: 

1.  Distribution.  It  will  keep  competition  more  intense 
among  laborers  and  less  intense  among  business  and  professional 
men:  it  will  therefore  raise  the  income  of  the  employing  classes 
and  lower  the  wages  of  unskilled  labor. 

2.  Production.  It  will  give  a  relatively  low  marginal  pro- 
ductivity to  a  typical  immigrant  and  make  him  a  relatively  un- 
important factor  in  the  production  of  wealth. 

3.  Organization  of  industry.  Immigrants  can  only  be  em- 
ployed economically  at  low  wages  and  in  large  gangs,  because  of 

(2). 

4.  Agriculture,  If  large  numbers  of  immigrants  should  go 
into  agriculture,  it  will  mean  one  of  two  things,  probably  the 
second: 

(a)  Continuous  subdivision  of  farms  resulting  in  inefficient 
and  wasteful  application  of  labor  and  smaller  crops  per  man, 
although  probably  larger  crops  per  acre. 

(b)  Development  of  a  class  of  landed  proprietors  on  the  one 
hand  and  a  landless  agricultural  proletariat  on  the  other. 

It  is  true  that  the  great  mass  of  unskilled  labor  which  has 
come  to  the  United  States  in  the  last  few  decades  has  made 
possible  the  development  of  many  industries  that  have  fur- 
nished an  increased  number  of  good  jobs  to  men  of  intelligence, 
but  many  who  have  made  a  close  study  of  the  immigration  prob- 
lem think  that  despite  this,  unskilled  labor  has  been  coming 
in  altogether  too  large  quantities.  Professor  Ross  publishes  the 
following  illustration: 

"What  a  college  man  saw  in  a  copper-mine  in  the  Southwest 
gives  in  a  nutshell  the  logic  of  low  wages. 

"The  American  miners,  getting  $2.75  a  day,  are  abruptly 
displaced  without  a  strike  by  a  train-load  of  500  raw  Italians 


3o8  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

brought  in  by  the  company  and  put  to  work  at  from  $1.50  to 
$2  a  day.  For  the  Americans  there  is  nothing  to  do  but  to  'go 
down  the  road.'  At  first  the  Italians  Hve  on  bread  and  beer, 
never  wash,  wear  the  same  filthy  clothes  night  and  day,  and  are 
despised.  After  two  or  three  years  they  want  to  live  better, 
wear  decent  clothes,  and  be  respected.  They  ask  for  more  wages, 
the  bosses  bring  in  another  trainload  from  the  steerage,  and  the 
partly  Americanized  Italians  follow  the  American  miners  '  down 
the  road.'  No  wonder  the  estimate  of  government  experts  as 
to  the  number  of  our  floating  casual  laborers  ranges  up  to  five 
millions!" 

"It  is  claimed  that  the  natives  are  not  displaced"  by  the 
constant  inflow  of  alien  unskilled  labor,  says  H.  P.  Fairchild,^ 
but  that  they  "are  simply  forced  into  higher  occupations. 
Those  who  were  formerly  common  laborers  are  now  in  positions 
of  authority.  While  this  argument  holds  true  of  individuals, 
its  fallacy  when  applied  to  groups  is  obvious.  There  are  not 
nearly  enough  places  of  authority  to  receive  those  who  are 
forced  out  from  below.  The  introduction  of  500  Slav  laborers 
into  a  community  may  make  a  demand  for  a  dozen  or  a  score  of 
Americans  in  higher  positions,  but  hardly  for  500." 

"The  number  of  unskilled  workers  coming  in  at  the  present 
time  is  sufficient  to  check  decidedly  the  normal  tendency  toward 
an  improved  standard  of  living  in  many  fines  of  industry,"  in 
the  opinion  of  J.  W.  Jenks,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Immi- 
gration Commission  appointed  by  President  Roosevelt  in  1907. 
He  alludes  to  the  belief  that  instead  of  crowding  the  older  work- 
ers out,  the  aliens  merely  crowd  them  up,  and  says  that  he  him- 
self formerly  held  that  view;  "but  the  figures  collected  by  the 
Immigration  commission,  from  a  sufficient  number  of  industries 
in  different  sections  of  the  country  to  give  general  conclusions, 
prove  beyond  a  doubt  that  in  a  good  many  cases  these  incoming 
immigrants  actually  drive  out  into  other  localities  and  into  other 
unskilled  trades  large  numbers  of  American  workingmen  and 
workingmen  of  the  earlier  immigration  who  do  not  get  better 
positions  but,  rather,  worse  ones.  .  .  .    Professor  Lauck,  our 

'  Fairchild's  and  Jenks'  opinions  are  quoted  from  Warne,  Chapter  XVI. 


IMMIGRATION  309 

chief  superintendent  of  investigators  in  the  field,  and,  so  far  as 
I  am  aware,  every  single  investigator  in  the  field,  before  the 
"  work  ended,  reached  the  conclusion  from  personal  observation 
that  the  tendency  of  the  large  percentage  of  immigration  of 
unskilled  workers  is  clearly  to  lower  the  standard  of  living  in 
a  number  of  industries,  and  the  statistics  of  the  commission 
support  this  impression.    I  therefore  changed  my  earlier  views." 

If  the  immigration  of  large  quantities  of  unskilled  labor  with 
low  standards  of  living  tends  in  most  cases  to  depress  wages 
and  lower  the  standard  of  living  of  the  corresponding  class  of  the 
old  American  population,  the  consequences  would  appear  to  be : 

1.  The  employers  of  labor  would  profit,  since  they  would  get 
abundant  labor  at  low  wages.  If  this  increase  in  the  wealth  of 
employers  led  to  an  increase  in  their  birth-rate,  it  would  be  an 
advantage.  But  it  apparently  does  not.  The  birth-rate  of  the 
employing  class  is  probably  little  restricted  by  financial  difii- 
culties;  therefore  on  them  immigration  probably  has  no  im- 
mediate eugenic  effect. 

2.  The  American  skilled  laborers  would  profit,  since  there  is 
more  demand  for  skilled  labor  in  industries  created  by  unskilled 
immigrant  labor.  Would  the  increasing  prosperity  and  a  higher 
standard  of  living  here,  tend  to  lower  the  relative  birth-rate  of 
the  class  or  not? 

The  answer  probably  depends  on  the  extent  of  the  knowledge 
of  birth  control  which  has  been  discussed  elsewhere. 

3.  The  wages  and  standard  of  living  of  American  unskilled 
laborers  will  fall,  since  they  are  obliged  directly  to  compete  with 
the  newcomers.  It  seems  most  likely  that  a  fall  in  wages  and 
standards  is  correlated  with  a  fall  in  birth-rate.  This  case  must 
be  distinguished  from  cases  where  the  wages  and  standards  never 
were  high,  and  where  poverty  is  correlated  with  a  high  birth- 
rate. If  this  distinction  is  correct,  the  present  immigration  will 
tend  to  lower  the  birth-rate  of  American  unskilled  laborers. 

The  arguments  here  used  may  appear  paradoxical,  and  have 
little  statistical  support,  but  they  seem  to  us  sound  and  not  in 
contradiction  with  any  known  facts.  If  they  are  valid,  the  effect 
pf  such  immigration  as  the  United  States  has  been  receiving  is  to 


3i6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

reduce  the  birth-rate  of  the  unskilled  labor  with  little  or  no 
effect  on  the  employers  and  managers  of  labor. 

Since  both  the  character  and  the  volume  of  immigration  are 
at  fault,  remedial  measures  may  be  applied  to  either  one  or  both 
of  these  features.  It  is  very  desirable  that  we  have  a  much 
more  stringent  selection  of  immigrants  than  is  made  at  the 
present  time.  But  most  of  the  measures  which  have  been  actu- 
ally proposed  and  urged  in  recent  years  have  been  directed  at 
a  diminution  of  the  volume,  and  at  a  change  in  character  only 
by  somewhat  indirect  and  indiscriminate  means. 

The  Immigration  Commission  made  a  report  to  Congress  on 
Dec.  5,  1910,  in  which  it  suggested  the  following  possible  meth- 
ods of  restricting  the  volume  of  immigration : 

1.  The  exclusion  of  those  unable  to  read  and  write  in  some 
language. 

2.  The  reduction  of  the  number  of  each  race  arriving  each 
year  to  a  certain  percentage  of  the  average  of  that  race  arriv- 
ing during  a  given  period  of  years. 

3.  The  exclusion  of  unskilled  laborers  unaccompanied  by 
wives  or  families, 

4.  Material  increase  in  the  amount  of  money  required  to  be 
in  the  possession  of  the  immigrant  at  the  port  of  arrival. 

5.  Material  increase  in  the  head  tax. 

6.  Limitation  of  the  number  of  immigrants  arriving  annually 
at  any  port. 

7.  The  levying  of  the  head  tax  so  as  to  make  a  marked  dis- 
crimination in  favor  of  men  with  families. 

Eugenically,  it  is  probable  that  (3)  and  (7),  which  would  tend 
to  admit  only  families,  would  be  a  detriment  to  American  wel- 
fare; (i)  and  (2)  have  been  the  suggestions  which  have  met 
with  the  most  favor.  All  but  one  member  of  the  commission 
favored  (i),  the  literacy  test,  as  the  most  feasible  single  method 
of  restricting  undesirable  immigration,  and  it  was  enacted  into 
law  by  Congress,  which  passed  it  over  President  Wilson's  veto, 
in  February,  191 7. 

Records  for  1914  show  that  "illiteracy  among  the  total 
number  of  arrivals  of  each  race  ranged  all  the  way  from  64% 


IMMIGRATION  311 

for  the  Turkish  to  less  than  1%  for  the  English,  the  Scotch, 
the  Welsh,  the  Scandinavian,  and  the  Finnish.  The  Bohemian 
and  Moravian,  the  German,  and  the  Irish  each  had  less  than  5% 
illiterate.  Races  other  than  the  Turkish,  whose  immigration 
in  1 9 14  was  more  than  one- third  illiterate,  include  the  Dal- 
matians, Bosnians,  Herzegovinians,  Russians,  Ruthenians, 
Italians,  Lithuanians,  and  Roumanians." 

It  is  frankly  admitted  by  the  proponents  of  this  method  of 
restriction  that  it  will  keep  out  some  who  ought  to  come  in, 
and  let  in  some  who  ought  to  be  kept  out.  It  is  in  some  cases 
a  test  of  opportunity  rather  than  of  character,  but  "in  the  belief 
of  its  advocates,  it  will  meet  the  situation  as  disclosed  by  the 
investigation  of  the  Immigration  Commission  better  than  any 
other  means  that  human  ingenuity  can  devise.  It  is  believed 
that  it  would  exclude  more  of  the  undesirable  and  fewer  of  the 
desirable  immigrants  than  any  other  method  of  restriction." 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  argued  that  the  literacy  test  will  fail 
of  success  because  those  who  want  to  come  will  learn  to  read  and 
write,  which  will  only  delay  their  arrival  a  few  months  without 
changing  their  real  character.  But  the  effect  of  such  attempts 
will  separate  those  who  succeed  from  those  who  are  too  in- 
ferior to  succeed,  which  would  be  an  advantage  of  the  plan 
rather  than  a  defect. 

The  second  method  of  selection  enumerated  (2)  above,  was 
proposed  by  Rev.  Sidney  L.  Gulick,  particularly  with  a  view  to 
meeting  the  need  of  restriction  of  Asiatic  immigration.^  This 
inunigration  will  be  discussed  shortly,  but  in  the  meantime  the 
details  of  his  plan  may  be  presented. 

"Only  so  many  immigrants  of  any  people  should  be  admitted 
as  we  can  Americanize.  Let  the  maximum  permissible  annual 
immigration  from  any  people  be  a  definite  per  cent,  (say  five) 
of  the  sum  of  the  American-born  children  of  that  people  plus 
those  who  have  become  naturalized  of  the  same  people.  Let  this 
restriction  be  imposed  only  upon  adult  males. 

*  America  and  the  Orient:  A  Constructive  Policy,  by  Rev.  Sidney  L.  Gulick,  Metho- 
dist Book  Concern.  The  American  Japanese  Problem^:  a  Study  of  the  Racial  Rela- 
tions of  the  East  and  West,  New  York,  Scribner's. 


312  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

"Taking  the  igio  census  as  our  basis,  the  5%  Restriction 
Proposal  would  have  fixed  the  maximum  permissible  immigra- 
tion of  males  from  North  and  West  Europe  at  759,000  annually, 
while  the  actual  annual  immigration  for  the  last  5  years  aver- 
ages but  115,000.  The  permissible  immigration  from  South 
and  East  Europe  would  have  been  189,000  annually,  while  the 
average  for  the  last  five  years  has  been  372,000.  When  applied 
to  China,  the  policy  would  have  admitted  1,106  males  per  year, 
while  the  nimiber  admitted  on  the  average  for  the  last  5  years 
has  been  1,571.  The  proposal  would  provide  for  the  admission 
of  1,200  Japanese  annually,  here  again  resulting  in  the  exclusion 
on  the  average  of  1,238  males  yearly  during  the  years  1911-1915. 
No  estimate  is  made  here  of  the  effect  of  the  exclusion  of  males 
on  the  arrival  of  women  and  children."  The  percentage  re- 
striction is  imsatisfactory  to  a  eugenist,  as  not  sufficiently  dis- 
criminating. 

The  literary  restriction  has  been  a  great  step  forward  but 
should  be  backed  by  the  addition  of  such  mental  tests  as  will 
make  it  fairly  certain  to  keep  out  the  dull-minded  as  well  as 
feeble-minded.  Long  division  would  suffice  as  such  a  test 
until  better  tests  relatively  unaffected  by  schooling  can  be  put 
into  operation,  since  it  is  at  this  point  in  the  grades  that  so 
many  dull-minded  drop  out  of  the  schools. 

Oriental  immigration  is  becoming  an  urgent  problem,  and  it 
is  essential  that  its  biological,  as  well  as  its  economic  and  socio- 
logical features  be  understood,  if  it  is  to  be  solved  in  a  satisfac- 
tory and  reasonably  permanent  way.  In  the  foregoing  discus- 
sion, Oriental  immigration  has  hardly  been  taken  into  account; 
it  must  now  receive  particular  consideration. 

What  are  the  grounds,  then,  for  forbidding  the  yellow  races, 
or  the  races  of  British  India,  to  enter  the  United  States?  The 
considerations  urged  in  the  past  have  been  (i)  Political:  it  is 
said  that  they  are  unable  to  acquire  the  spirit  of  American  in- 
stitutions. This  is  an  objection  which  concerns  eugenics  only 
indirectly.  (2)  Medical:  it  is  said  that  they  introduce  diseases, 
such  as  the  oriental  liver,  lung  and  intestinal  flukes,  which  are 
serious,  against  which  Americans  have  never  been  selected, 


IMMIGRATION  313 

and  for  which  no  cure  is  known.  (3)  Economic:  it  is  argued  that 
the  Oriental's  lower  standard  of  living  makes  it  impossible  for 
the  white  man  to  compete  with  him.  The  objection  is  well 
founded,  and  is  indirectly  of  concern  to  eugenics,  as  was  pointed 
out  in  a  preceding  section  of  this  chapter.  As  eugenists  we  feel 
justified_mJ3bjecting  to  the  immigration  of  large  bodies  of  un- 
skilled Oriental  labor,  on  the  ground  that  they  rear  larger  fami- 
lies_tIian_our  stock  on  the  same  small  incomes. 

A  biological  objection  has  also  been  alleged,  in  the  possibility 
of  interbreeding  between  the  yellow  and  white  races.  In  the 
past  such  cases  have  been  very  rare;  it  is  authoritatively  stated  ^ 
that  "there  are  on  our  whole  Pacific  coast  not  more  than  20 
instances  of  intermarriage  between  Americans  and  Japanese, 
and  .  .  .  one  might  count  on  the  fingers  of  both  hands  the 
number  of  American-Chinese  marriages  between  San  Diego 
and  Seattle."  The  presence  of  a  body  of  non-interbreeding  immi- 
grants is  likely  to  produce  the  adverse  results  already  discussed 
in  the  earlier  part  of  this  chapter. 

Eugenically,  then,  the  immigration  of  any  considerable 
number  of  unskilled  laborers  from  the  Orient  may  have  un- 
desirable direct  results  and  is  certain  to  have  unfavorable  in- 
direct results.  It  should  therefore  be  prevented,  either  by  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  "gentlemen's  agreement"  now  in  force  between 
the  United  States  and  Japan,  and  by  similar  agreements  with 
other  nations,  or  by  some  such  non-invidious  measure  as  that 
proposed  by  Dr.  Gulick.  This  exclusion  should  not  of  course 
be  applied  to  the  intellectual  classes,  whose  presence  here 
would  offer  advantages  which  would  outweigh  the  disadvan- 
tages. 

We  have  a  different  situation  in  the  Philippine  islands,  there 
the  yellow  races  have  been  denied  admission  since  the  United 
States  took  possession.  Previously,  the  Chinese  had  been  trad- 
ing there  for  centuries,  and  had  settled  in  considerable  numbers 
almost  from  the  time  the  Spaniards  colonized  the  archipelago. 

^  Oriental  Immigration.  By  W.  C.  Billings,  surgeon,  U.  S.  Public  Health  Service; 
Chief  Medical  Officer,  Immigration  Service;  Angel  Island  (San  Francisco),  Calif., 
Journal  0/ Heredity,  Vol.  VI  (1915),  pp.  462-467. 


314  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

At  present  it  is  estimated  that  there  are  100,000  Chinese  in  the 
islands,  and  their  situation  was  not  put  too  strongly  by  A.  E. 
Jenks,  when  he  wrote :  ^ 

"As  to  the  Chinese,  it  does  not  matter  much  what  they  them- 
selves desire;  but  what  their  descendants  desire  will  go  far 
toward  answering  the  whole  question  of  the  Filipinos'  volition 
toward  assimilation,  because  they  are  the  Filipinos.  To  be 
specific:  During  the  latter  days  of  my  residence  in  the  Islands 
in  1905  Governor-General  Wright  one  day  told  me  that  he  had 
recently  personally  received  from  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
Filipinos  of  the  time,  and  a  member  of  the  Insular  Civil  Com- 
mission, the  statement  that  'there  was  not  a  single  prominent 
and  dominant  family  among  the  Christianized  Filipinos  which 
did  not  possess  Chinese  blood.'  The  voice  and  will  of  the  Fili- 
pinos of  to-day  is  the  voice  and  the  will  of  these  brainy,  industri- 
ous, rapidly  developing  men  whose  judgment  in  time  the  world 
is  bound  to  respect." 

This  statement  will  be  confirmed  by  almost  any  American 
resident  in  the  Islands.  Most  of  the  men  who  have  risen  to 
prominence  in  the  Islands  are  mestizos,  and  while  in  political 
life  some  of  the  leaders  are  merely  Spanish  metis,  the  financial 
leaders  almost  without  exception,  the  captains  of  industry,  have 
Chinese  blood  in  their  veins,  while  this  class  has  also  taken  an 
active  part  in  the  government  of  the  archipelago.  Emilio 
Aguinaldo  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  Chinese  mestizos. 
Individual  examples  might  be  multiplied  without  limit;  it  will  be 
sufficient  to  mention  Bautista  Lim,  president  of  the  largest 
tobacco  firm  in  the  islands  and  also  a  physician;  his  brother, 
formerly  an  insurgent  general  and  later  governor  of  Sampango 
province  under  the  American  administration;  the  banker  Lim 
Hap;  Faustino  Lechoco,  cattle  king  of  the  Philippines;  Fer- 
nandez brothers,  proprietors  of  a  steamship  line;  Locsin  and 
Lacson,  wealthy  sugar  planters;  Mariano  Velasco,  dry-goods 
importer;  Datto  Piang,  the  Moro  warrior  and  chieftain;  Paua, 

'  Assimilation  in  the  Philippines,  etc.  By  Albert  Ernest  Jenks,  professor  of  an- 
thropology in  the  University  of  Minnesota.  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol. 
XIX  (1914),  p.  783. 


IMMIGRATION  315 

insurgent  general  in  southern  Luzon;  Ricardo  Gochuico,  to- 
bacco magnate.  In  most  of  these  men  the  proportion  of  Chinese 
blood  is  large. 

Generalizing,  we  are  justified  in  saying  that  the  cross  between 
Chinese  and  Filipinos  produces  progeny  superior  to  the  Fili- 
pinos. It  must  be  remembered  that  it  is  not  a  very  wide  cross, 
the  Malayans,  who  include  most  of  the  Filipinos,  being  closely 
related  to  the  Chinese. 

It  appears  that  even  a  small  infusion  of  Chinese  blood  may 
produce  long-continued  favorable  results,  if  the  case  of  the 
Ilocanos  is  correctly  described.  This  tribe,  in  Northern  Luzon, 
furnishes  perhaps  the  most  industrious  workers  of  any  tribe 
in  the  islands;  foremen  and  overseers  of  Filipinos  are  quite  com- 
monly found  to  be  Ilocanos,  while  the  members  of  the  tribe  are 
credited  with  accomplishing  more  steady  work  than  any  other 
element  of  the  population.  The  current  explanation  of  this  is 
that  they  are  Chinese  mestizos:  their  coast  was  constantly  ex- 
posed to  the  raids  of  Chinese  pirates,  a  certain  number  of  whom 
settled  there  and  took  Ilocano  women  as  wives.  From  these 
unions,  the  whole  tribe  in  the  course  of  time  is  thought  to  have 
benefited.^ 

The  history  of  the  Chinese  in  the  Philippines  fails  to  corrobo- 
rate the  idea  that  he  never  loses  his  racial  identity.  It  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  nearly  all  the  Chinese  in  the  United  States 
are  of  the  lowest  working  class,  and  from  the  vicinity  of  Canton; 
while  those  in  the  Philippines  are  of  a  higher  class,  and  largely 
from  the  neighborhood  of  Amoy.  They  have  usually  married 
Filipino  women  of  good  families,  so  their  offspring  had  excep- 
tional advantages,  and  stand  high  in  the  estimation  of  the 
community.  The  requirement  of  the  Spanish  government  was 
that  a  Chinese  must  embrace  Christianity  and  become  a  citizen, 
before  he  could  marry  a  Filipino.  Usually  he  assumed  his 
wife's  name,  so  the  children  were  brought  up  wholly  as  Filipinos, 

1  Students  of  the  inheritance  of  mental  and  moral  traits  may  be  interested  to 
note  that  while  the  ordinary  Chinese  mestizo  in  the  Philippines  is  a  man  of  probity, 
who  has  the  high  regard  of  his  European  business  associates,  the  Ilocanos,  supposed 
descendents  of  pirates,  are  considered  rather  tricky  and  dishonest. 


3i6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

and  considered  themselves  such,  without  cherishing  any  par- 
ticular sentiment  for  the  Flowery  Kingdom. 

The  biologist  who  studies  impartially  the  Filipino  peoples 
may  easily  conclude  that  the  American  government  is  making 
a  mistake  in  excluding  the  Chinese;  that  the  infiltration  of  in- 
telligent Chinese  and  their  intermixture  with  the  native  popu- 
lation would  do  more  to  raise  the  level  of  ability  of  the  latter 
than  a  dozen  generations  of  that  compulsory  education  on  which 
the  government  has  built  such  high  hopes. 

And  this  conclusion  leads  to  the  question  whether  much  of  the 
surplus  population  of  the  Orient  could  not  profitably  be  diverted 
to  regions  occupied  by  savage  and  barbarian  people.  Chinese 
inunigrants,  mostly  traders,  have  long  been  going  in  small 
numbers  to  many  such  regions  and  have  freely  intermarried 
with  native  women.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  observ^ation  to 
travelers  that  much  of  the  small  mercantile  business  has  passed 
into  the  hands  of  Chinese  mestizos.  As  far  as  the  first  few  gener- 
ations, at  least,  the  cross  here  seems  to  be  productive  of  good 
resvilts.  Whether  Oriental  immigration  should  be  encouraged 
must  depend  on  the  decision  of  the  respective  governments,  and 
considerations  other  than  biologic  will  have  weight.  As  far  as 
eugenics  is  concerned  it  is  likely  that  such  regions  would  profit 
by  a  reasonable  amount  of  Chinese  or  Japanese  immigra- 
tion which  resulted  in  interbreeding  and  not  in  the  forma- 
tion of  isolated  race-groups,  because  the  superior  Orientals 
tend  to  raise  the  level  of  the  native  population  into  which  they 
marry. 

The  question  of  the  regulation  of  immigration  is,  as  we  have 
insisted  throughout  this  chapter,  a  question  of  weighing  the  con- 
sequences. A  decision  must  be  reached  in  each  case  by  asking 
what  course  will  do  most  for  the  future  good  both  of  the  nation 
and  of  the  whole  species.  To  talk  of  the  t^arr^rl  Hntjr  nf  nfifir 
ing  an_agylum   tO-^ny  whQ  rhnase  to  come^  is  to  indulge  ija 

yimmoral   sentimentality^ Even   if    the  problem   be   put  on 

^e  most  unselfish  plane  possible,  to  ask  not  what  will  be 
for  this  country's  own  immediate  or  future  benefit,  but  what 
will  most   benefit   the   world  at  large,  it   can   only   be   con- 


IMMIGRATION  317 

eluded  that  the  duty  of  the  United  States  is  to  make  itself 
strong,  efficient,  productive  and  progressive.  By  so  doing  they 
will  be  much  better  able  to  help  the  rest  of  the  world  than  by 
progressively  weakening  themselves  through  failure  to  regulate 
immigration. 

Further,  in  reaching  a  decision  on  the  regulation  of  immigra- 
tion, there  are  numerous  kinds  of  results  to  be  considered: 
political,  social,  economic  and  biologic,  among  others.  All  these 
interact,  and  it  is  hard  to  say  that  one  is  more  important  than 
another;  naturally  we  have  limited  ourselves  to  the  biologic 
aspect,  but  not  without  recognizing  that  the  other  aspects 
exist  and  must  be  taken  into  accoimt  by  those  who  are  experts 
in  those  fields. 

Looking  only  at  the  eugenic  consequences,  we  can  not  doubt 
that  a  considerable  and  discriminatory  selection  of  immigrants 
to  this  country  is  necessary.  Both  directly  and  indirectly,  the 
immigration  of  recent  years  appears  to  be  diminishing  the  eu- 
genic strength  of  the  nation  more  than  it  increases  it. 

The  state  would  be  in  a  stronger  position  eugenically  (and 
in  many  other  ways)  if  it  would  decrease  the  immigration  of 
unskilled  labor,  and  increase  the  immigration  of  creative  and, 
directing  talent.  A  selective  diminution  of  the  volume  of  immi- 
gration would  tend  to  have  that  result,  because  it  would  neces- 
sarily shut  out  more  of  the  unskilled  than  the  skilled. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

WAR 

War  always  changes  the  composition  of  a  nation;  but  this 
change  may  be  either  a  loss  or  a  gain.  The  modification  of  se- 
lection by  war  is  far  more  manifold  than  the  literature  on  the 
biological  effects  of  war  would  lead  the  reader  to  suppose.  All 
wars  are  partly  eugenic  and  partly  dysgenic;  some  are  mainly 
the  one,  some  are  mainly  the  other.  The  racial  effects  of  war 
occur  in  at  least  three  periods: 

1.  The  period  of  preparation. 

2.  The  period  of  actual  fighting. 

3.  The  period  of  readjustment  after  the  war. 

The  first  division  involves  the  effect  of  a  standing  army, 
which  withdraws  men  during  a  part  of  the  reproductive  period 
and  keeps  most  of  them  in  a  celibate  career.  The  officers  marry- 
late  if  at  all  and  show  a  very  low  birth-rate.  The  prolonged 
cehbacy  has  in  many  armies  led  to  a  higher  incidence  of  venereal 
diseases  which  prolongs  the  celibacy  and  lowers  the  birth- 
rate.^ Without  extended  discussion,  the  following  considera- 
tions may  be  named  as  among  those  which  should  govern  a 
poUcy  of  mihtary  preparedness  that  will  safeguard,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  eugenic  interests: 

1.  If  the  army  is  a  standing  one,  composed  of  men  serving 
long  terms  of  enlistment,  they  should  be  of  as  advanced  an  age 
as  is  compatible  with  military  efl&ciency.  If  a  man  of  35  has 
not  married,  it  is  probable  that  he  will  never  marry,  and  there- 
fore there  is  less  loss  to  the  race  in  enrolling  him  for  military 
service,  than  is  the  case  with  a  man  of  20-25. 

2.  The  army  (except  in  so  far  as  composed  of  inferior  men) 

>  An  important  study  of  this  subject  was  published  by  Professor  Vernon  L.  Kel- 
logg in  Social  Hygiene  (New  York),  Dec.,  1914. 

318 


WAR  319 

should  not  foster  celibacy.     Short  enlistments  are  probably 
the  most  valuable  means  of  avoiding  this  evil. 

3.  Universal  conscription  is  much  better  than  voluntary  ser- 
vice, since  the  latter  is  highly  selective,  the  former  much  less  so. 
Those  in  regular  attendance  in  college  should  receive  their 
military  training  in  their  course  as  is  now  done. 

4.  Officers'  families  should  be  given  an  additional  allowance 
for  each  child.  This  would  aid  in  increasing  the  birth-rate,  which 
appears  to  be  very  low  among  army  and  navy  officers  in  the 
United  States  service,  and  probably  in  that  of  all  civilized  coun- 
tries. 

5.  Every  citizen  owes  service  to  his  nation,  in  time  of  need,  but 
fighting  service  should  not  be  exacted  if  some  one  else  could  per- 
form it  better  than  he  where  he  is  expert  in  some  other  needed 
field.  The  recent  action  of  England  in  sending  to  the  front  as 
subaltern  officers,  who  were  speedily  killed,  many  highly  trained 
technicians  and  young  scientists  and  medical  men  who  would 
have  been  much  more  valuable  at  home  in  connection  with  war 
measures,  is  an  example  of  this  mistake.  Carrying  the  idea 
farther,  one  sees  that  in  many  nations  there  are  certain  races 
which  are  more  valuable  on  the  firing  line  than  in  industries  at 
the  rear;  and  it  appears  that  they  should  play  the  part  for  which 
they  are  best  fitted.  From  this  point  of  view,  the  Entente  allies 
were  wholly  justified  in  employing  their  Asiatic  and  African  sub- 
jects in  war.  In  the  United  States  are  milHons  of  negroes  who 
are  of  less  value  than  white  men  in  organized  industry  but 
almost  as  valuable  as  the  whites,  when  properly  led,  at  the  front. 
It  would  appear  to  be  sound  statesmanship  to  enlist  as  many 
Negroes  as  possible  in  the  active  forces,  in  case  of  war,  thus  re- 
leasing a  corresponding  number  of  more  skilled  white  workers  for 
the  industrial  machine  on  whose  efficiency  success  in  modem 
warfare  largely  rests. 

The  creation  of  the  National  Army  in  the  United  States,  in 
1917,  while  in  most  ways  admirably  conducted,  was  open  to 
criticism  in  several  respects,  from  the  eugenic  point  of  view: 

(a)  Too  many  college  men  and  men  in  intellectual  pursuits 
were  taken  as  officers,  particularly  in  the  aviation  corps.    There 


320  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

should  have  been  more  men  employed  as  officers  who  had 
demonstrated  the  necessary  qualifications,  as  foremen  and 
others  accustomed  to  boss  gangs  of  men. 

(b)  The  burden  was  thrown  too  heavily  on  the  old  white 
Americans,  by  the  exemption  of  aliens,  who  make  up  a  large  part 
of  the  population  in  some  states.  There  were  communities  in 
New  England  which  actually  could  not  fill  their  quotas,  even 
by  taking  every  acceptable  native-bom  resident,  so  large  is 
their  alien  population.  The  quota  should  have  been  adjusted  if 
aliens  were  to  be  exempt. 

(c)  The  district  boards  were  not  as  liberal  as  was  desirable, 
in  exempting  from  the  first  quota  men  needed  in  skilled  work  at 
home.  The  spirit  of  the  selective  draft  was  widely  violated,  and 
necessitated  a  complete  change  of  method  before  the  sec- 
ond quota  was  called  by  the  much  improved  questionnaire 
method. 

It  is  difficult  to  get  such  mistakes  as  these  corrected;  neverthe- 
less a  nation  should  never  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  war  is  in- 
evitably damaging,  and  that  the  most  successful  nation  is  the 
one  which  wins  its  wars  with  the  least  possible  eugenic  loss. 

Leaving  the  period  of  preparedness,  we  consider  the  period  of 
open  warfare.  The  reader  will  remember  that,  in  an  earlier  chap- 
ter, we  divided  natural  selection  into  (i)  lethal,  that  which 
operates  through  differential  mortality;  (2)  sexual,  that  which 
operates  through  differential  mating;  and  (3)  fecundal,  that 
which  operates  through  differential  fecundity.  Again,  selection 
operates  both  in  an  inter-group  competition  and  an  intra-group 
competition.  The  influence  of  any  agency  on  natural  selection 
must  be  examined  under  each  of  these  six  heads.  In  the  case  of 
war,  however,  fecundal  selection  may  be  eliminated,  as  it  is 
little  influenced.  Still  another  division  arises  from  the  fact 
that  the  action  of  selection  is  different  during  war  upon  the 
armed  forces  themselves  and  upon  the  population  at  home;  and 
after  the  war,  upon  the  nations  with  the  various  modifications 
that  the  war  has  left. 

We  will  consider  lethal  selection  first.  To  measure  the  effect 
of  the  inter-group  selection  of  the  armed  forces,  one  must  com- 


WAR  321 

pare  the  relative  quality  of  the  two  races  involved.  The  evi- 
dence for  believing  in  substantial  differences  between  races  is 
based  (a)  upon  their  relative  achievement  when  each  is  isolated, 
(b)  upon  the  relative  rank  when  the  two  are  competing  in  one 
society,  and  (c)  upon  the  relative  number  of  original  contribu- 
tions to  civilization  each  has  made.  Such  comparisons  are  fatal 
to  the  sentimental  equalitarianism  that  denies  race  differences. 
While  there  is,  of  course,  a  great  deal  of  overlapping,  there  are, 
nevertheless,  real  average  differences.  To  think  otherwise  is 
to  discard  evolution  and  revert  to  the  older  standpoint  of  "  spe- 
cial creation." 

Comparison  of  the  quality  of  the  two  sides  is  sometimes,  of 
course,  very  difficult.  One  may  feel  little  hesitation  in  giving 
a  decision  in  the  classical  war  of  the  Greeks  and  Persians,  or  the 
more  modem  case  of  the  English  and  Afghans,  but  when  con- 
sidering the  Franco-Prussian  war,  or  the  Russo-Japanese  war, 
or  the  Boer  war,  or  the  American  civil  war,  it  is  largely  a  matter 
of  mere  opinion,  and  perhaps  an  advantage  can  hardly  be  con- 
ceded to  either  side.  Those  who,  misunderstanding  the  doctrine 
of  evolution,  adhere  to  the  so-called  "philosophy  of  force," 
would  answer  without  hesitation  that  the  side  which  won  was, 
ipso  facto,  the  better  side.  But  such  a  judgment  is  based  on 
numerous  fallacies,  and  can  not  be  indorsed  in  the  sweeping  way 
it  is  uttered.    Take  a  concrete  example : 

"In  1806,  Prussia  was  defeated  at  the  battle  of  Jena.  Accord- 
ing to  the  philosophy  of  force,  this  was  because  Prussia  was 
'inferior'  and  France  was  'superior.'  Suppose  we  admit  for 
the  moment  that  this  was  the  case.  The  selection  now  repre- 
sents the  survival  of  the  fittest,  the  selection  which  perfects 
the  human  species.  But  what  shall  we  say.  of  the  battle  of 
Leipsic?  At  Leipsic,  in  1813,  all  the  values  were  reversed;  it 
is  now  France  which  is  the  '  inferior '  nation.  .  .  .  Furthermore, 
a  large  number  of  the  same  generals  and  soldiers  who  took  part 
in  the  battle  of  Jena  also  took  part  in  the  battle  of  Leipsic. 
Napoleon  belonged,  therefore,  to  a  race  which  was  superior  to 
that  of  Bliicher  in  1806,  but  to  an  inferior  race  in  1813,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  they  were  the  same  persons  and  had  not  changed 


322  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

their  nationality.  As  soon  as  we  bring  these  assertions  to  the 
touchstone  of  concrete  reality  we  see  at  once  how  untenable  and 
even  ridiculous  are  direct  biological  comparisons."  ^ 

Without  going  into  further  detail,  it  is  readily  seen  that,  on 
the  world  at  large,  the  eugenic  effect  of  a  war  would  be  very 
different  according  as  the  sides  differ  much  or  little.  Yet  this 
difference  in  quality,  however  great,  will  have  no  significance, 
unless  the  superior  or  inferior  side  is  in  general  more  likely  to 
lose  fewer  men.  Where  the  difference  has  been  considerable, 
as  between  a  civilized  and  savage  nation,  it  has  been  seldom  that 
the  superior  has  not  triumphed  with  fewer  losses.  Victory, 
however,  is  influenced  much  less  in  these  later  days  by  the  rela- 
tive military  efficiency  of  two  single  nations  than  by  their  suc- 
cess in  making  powerful  alliances.  But  such  alignments  are  by 
no  means  always  associated  with  better  quality,  because  (a) 
there  is  a  natural  tendency  for  the  weak  to  unite  against  a  strong 
nation,  (b)  to  side  with  a  group  which  is  apparently  succeeding, 
and  (c)  the  alliances  may  be  the  work  of  one  or  a  few  indi- 
viduals who  happen  to  be  in  positions  of  power  at  the  critical 
time. 

Modem  European  wars,  especially  the  latest  one,  have  been 
marked  by  the  high  quality  of  the  combatants  on  both  sides  rela- 
tive to  the  rest  of  the  world.  As  these  same  races  fight  with 
pertinacity,  there  is  a  high  mortality  rate,  so  that  the  dysgenic 
result  of  these  wars  is  particularly  deplorable. 

As  for  the  selection  taking  place  within  each  of  the  struggling 
nations,  the  combatants  and  the  non-combatants  of  the  same 
age  and  sex  must  first  be  compared.  The  difference  here  de- 
pends largely  on  how  the  army  in  question  was  raised.  Where 
the  army  is  a  permanent,  paid  force,  it  probably  does  not  rep- 
resent a  quality  above  the  average  of  the  nation,  except  phys- 
ically.    When  it  is  conscripted,  it  is  superior  physically  and 

^  Nasmyth,  George,  Social  Progress  and  the  Danvinian  Theory,  p.  146,  New  York, 
1916.  While  his  book  is  too  partisan,  his  Chapter  III  is  well  worth  reading 
by  those  who  want  to  avoid  the  gross  blunders  which  militarists  and  many  biolo- 
gists have  made  in  applying  Darwinism  to  social  progress;  it  is  based  on  the  work  of 
Professor  J.  Novikov  of  the  University  of  Odessa.  See  also  Headquarters  Nights  by 
Vernon  Kellogg. 


WAR  323 

probably  slightly  in  other  respects.  If  it  is  a  volunteer  army, 
its  quality  depends  largely  on  whether  the  cause  being  fought  for 
is  one  that  appeals  merely  to  the  spirit  of  adventure  or  one  that 
appeals  to  some  moral  principle.  In  the  latter  case,  the  quality 
may  be  such  that  the  loss  of  a  large  part  of  the  army  will  be 
peculiarly  damaging  to  the  progress  of  the  race.  This  situation 
is  more  common  than  might  be  supposed,  for  by  skillful  di- 
plomacy and  journalism  a  cause  which  may  be  really  question- 
able is  presented  to  the  public  in  a  most  idealistic  light.  But 
here,  again,  one  can  not  always  apply  sweeping  generalizations 
to  individual  cases.  It  might  be  supposed,  for  instance,  that  in 
the  Confederate  army  the  best  eugenic  quality  was  represented 
by  the  volunteers,  the  second  best  by  those  who  stayed  out 
until  they  were  conscripted,  and  the  poorest  by  the  deserters. 
Yet  David  Starr  Jordan  and  Harvey  Ernest  Jordan,  who  in- 
vestigated the  case  with  care,  found  that  this  was  hardly  true 
and  that,  due  to  the  peculiar  circtunstances,  the  deserters  were 
probably  not  as  a  class  eugenically  inferior  to  the  volunteers.^ 
Again  some  wars,  such  as  that  between  the  United  States  and 
Spain,  probably  develop  a  volunteer  army  made  up  largely  of 
the  adventurous,  the  nomadic,  and  those  who  have  fewer  ties; 
it  would  be  diflficult  to  demonstrate  that  they  are  superior  to 
those  who,  having  settled  positions  at  home,  or  family  obliga- 
tions, fail  to  volunteer.  The  greatest  damage  appears  to  be  done 
in  such  wars  as  those  waged  by  great  European  nations,  where 
the  whole  able-bodied  male  population  is  called  out,  and  only 
those  left  at  home  who  are  physically  or  mentally  unfit  for 
fighting — but  not,  it  appears  to  be  thought,  unfit  to  perpetuate 
the  race. 

Even  within  the  army  of  one  side,  lethal  selection  is  operative. 
Those  who  are  killed  are  by  no  means  a  haphazard  sample  of  the 
whole  army.  Among  the  victims  there  is  a  disproportionate 
representation  of  those  with  (i)  dauntless  bravery,  (2)  reckless- 
ness, (3)  stupidity.  These  qualities  merge  into  each  other, 
yet  in  their  extremes  they  are  widely  different.  However,  as 
the  nature  of  warfare  changes  with  the  increase  of  artillery, 

^  Jordan,  D.  S.,  and  Jordan,  H.  E.,  War's  Aftermath,  Boston,  igis. 


324  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

mines,  bombs,  and  gases,  and  decrease  of  personal  combat,  those 
who  fall  are  more  and  more  chance  victims. 

In  addition  to  the  killed  and  mortally  wounded,  there  are 
many  deaths  from  disease  or  from  wounds  which  were  not 
necessarily  fatal.  Probably  the  most  selective  of  any  of  these 
three  agencies  is  the  variable  resistance  to  disease  and  infection 
and  the  widely  varying  knowledge  and  appreciation  of  the  need 
for  hygienic  living  shown  by  the  individual,  as,  for  instance, 
by  less  reckless  drinking  of  unsterilized  water.  But  here,  too, 
in  modem  warfare,  this  item  is  becoming  less  selective,  with  the 
advance  in  discipline  and  in  organized  sanitation. 

The  efficiency  of  selection  will  be  affected  by  the  percentage 
that  each  side  has  sent  to  the  front,  if  the  combatants  are  either 
above  or  below  the  average  of  the  population.  A  nation  that 
sends  all  its  able-bodied  males  forward  will  be  affected  differ- 
ently from  its  enemy  that  has  needed  to  call  upon  only  one-half 
of  its  able-bodied  men  in  order  to  win  its  cause. 

Away  from  the  fighting  lines  of  the  contending  sides,  condi- 
tions that  prevail  are  rendered  more  severe  in  many  ways  than 
in  times  of  peace.  Poverty  becomes  rife,  and  sanitation  and 
medical  treatment  are  commonly  sacrificed  under  the  strain. 
During  a  war,  that  mitigation  of  the  action  of  natural  selection 
which  is  so  common  now  among  civilized  nations,  is  somewhat 
less  effective  than  in  times  of  peace.  The  scourge  of  typhus  in 
Serbia  is  a  recent  and  graphic  illustration. 

After  a  war  has  been  concluded,  certain  new  agencies  of  inter- 
group  selection  arise.  The  result  depends  largely  on  whether 
the  vanquished  have  had  a  superior  culture  brought  to  them, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Philippines,  or  whether,  on  the  contrary, 
certain  diseases  have  been  introduced,  as  to  the  natives  of  the 
New  World  by  the  Spanish  conquerors  and  explorers,  or  crush- 
ing tribute  has  been  levied,  or  grievous  oppression  such  as 
has  befallen  Belgium. 

Sometimes  the  conquerors  themselves  have  suffered  severely 
as  the  result  of  excessive  spoliation,  which  has  produced  vicious 
idleness  and  luxurious  indulgence,  with  the  ultimate  effect  of 
diminishing  the  birth-rate. 


WAR  32s 

Within  the  nation  there  may  be  various  results.  Sometimes, 
by  the  reduction  of  overcrowding,  natural  selection  will  be  less 
severe.  On  the  other  hand,  the  loss  of  that  part  of  the  popula- 
tion which  is  more  economically  productive  is  a  very  serious 
loss,  leading  to  excessive  poverty  with  increased  severity  in  the 
action  of  natural  selection,  of  which  some  of  the  Southern  States, 
during  the  Reconstruction  period,  offer  a  good  illustration. 

Selection  is  also  rendered  more  intense  by  the  heavy  burden  of 
taxation,  and  in  the  very  common  depreciation  of  currency  as 
is  now  felt  in  Russia. 

Sexual  selection  as  well  as  lethal  is  affected  by  war  in  manifold 
ways.  Considering  the  armed  force,  there  is  an  inter-group 
selection,  when  the  enemy's  women  are  assaulted  by  the  soldiers. 
While  this  has  been  an  important  factor  in  the  past,  it  is  some- 
what less  common  now,  with  better  army  discipline  and  higher 
social  ideals. 

Within  the  group,  mating  at  the  outset  of  a  war  is  greatly 
increased  by  many  hurried  marriages.  There  is  also  alleged 
to  be  sometimes  an  increase  of  illegitimacy  in  the  neighborhood 
of  training  camps.  In  each  of  these  instances,  these  matings 
do  not  represent  as  much  maturity  of  judgment  as  there  would 
have  been  in  times  of  peace,  and  hence  give  a  less  desirable 
sexual  selection. 

In  the  belligerent  nation  at  home,  the  number  of  marriageable 
males  is  of  course  far  less  than  at  ordinary  times.  It  becomes  im- 
portant, then,  to  compare  the  quality  of  the  non-combatants 
and  those  combatants  who  survive  and  return  home,  since  their 
absence  during  the  war  period  of  course  decreases  their  repro- 
duction as  compared  with  the  non-combatants.  The  marked 
excess  of  women  O'^r  men,  both  during  the  war  and  after, 
necessarily  intensifies  the  selection  of  women  and  proportionately 
reduces  that  of  men,  since  relatively  fewer  men  will  remain  un- 
mated.  This  excess  of  women  is  found  in  all  classes.  Among 
superiors  there  are,  in  addition,  some  women  who  never  marry 
because  the  war  has  so  reduced  the  number  of  suitors  thought 
eligible. 

The  five  years'  war  of  Paraguay  with  Brazil,  Uruguay  and 


326  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Argentina  (i 864-1 869)  is  perhaps  the  most  glaring  case  on 
record  ^  in  recent  years  of  the  destruction  of  the  male  popula- 
tion of  a  country.  Whole  regiments  were  made  up  of  boys  of 
16  or  less.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  the  population  of  Para- 
guay had  been  given  as  1,337,437.  It  fell  to  221,709  (28,746 
men,  106,254  women,  86,079  children);  it  is  even  now  probably 
not  more  than  half  of  the  estimate  made  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war.  "Here  in  a  small  area  has  occurred  a  drastic  case  of  racial 
ravage  without  parallel  since  the  time  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War."  Macedonia,  however,  furnishes  a  fairly  close  parallel — 
D.  S.  Jordan  found  whole  villages  there  in  1913  in  which  not  a 
single  man  remained:  only  women  and  children.  Conditions 
were  not  so  very  much  better  in  parts  of  the  South  at  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War,  particularly  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina, 
where  probably  40%  of  the  young  men  of  reproductive  age  died 
without  issue.  And  in  a  few  of  the  Northern  states,  such  as 
Vermont,  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  the  loss  was  pro- 
portionately almost  as  great.  These  were  probably  as  good 
men  as  any  country  has  produced,  and  their  loss,  with  that  of 
their  potential  offspring,  undoubtedly  is  causing  more  far-reach- 
ing effects  in  the  subsequent  history  of  the  United  States  than 
has  ever  been  realized. 

In  the  past  and  still  among  many  savage  peoples,  inter-group 
selection  has  been  affected  by  the  stealing  of  women  from  the 
vanquished.  The  effect  of  this  has  been  very  different,  depend- 
ing on  whether  these  women  would  otherwise  have  been  killed 
or  spared,  and  also  depending  on  the  relative  quahty  of  their 
nation  to  that  of  their  conquerors. 

To  sum  up,  there  are  so  many  features  of  natural  selection, 
each  of  which  must  be  separately  weighed  and  the  whole  then 
balanced,  that  it  is  a  matter  of  extensive  inquiry  to  determine 
whether  a  certain  war  has  a  preponderance  of  eugenic  or  dys- 
genic  results. 

When  the  quality  of  the  combatants  is  so  high,  compared  with 

'  Jordan,  David  Starr,  War  and  the  Breed,  p.  164.  Boston,  1915.  Chancellor 
Jordan  has  long  been  the  foremost  exponent  of  the  dysgenic  significance  of  war, 
and  this  book  gives  an  excellent  summary  of  the  problem  from  his  point  of  view. 


WAR  327 

the  rest  of  the  world,  as  during  the  Great  War,  no  conceivable 
eugenic  gains  from  the  war  can  offset  the  losses.  It  is  probably 
well  within  the  facts  to  assume  that  the  period  of  this  war  repre- 
sents a  decline  in  inherent  human  quality,  greater  than  in  any 
similar  length  of  time  in  the  previous  history  of  the  world. 

Unfortunately,  it  does  not  appear  that  war  is  becoming  much 
less  common  if  we  consider  number  of  combatants  rather  than 
number  of  wars  as  times  goes  on,^  and  it  steadily  tends  to  be 
more  destructive.  War,  then,  offers  one  of  the  greatest  prob- 
lems which  the  eugenist  must  face,  for  a  few  months  of  war  may 
undo  all  that  eugenic  reforms  can  gain  in  a  generation. 

The  total  abolition  of  war  would,  of  course,  be  the  ideal,  but 
there  is  no  possibility  of  this  in  the  near  future.  The  fighting  in- 
stinct, it  must  be  remembered,  is  one  of  the  most  primitive  and 
powerful  that  the  human  mechanism  contains.  It  was  evolved 
in  great  intensity,  to  give  man  supremacy  over  his  environment 
— for  the  great  ''struggle  for  existence"  is  with  the  environment, 
not  with  members  of  one's  own  species.  Man  long  ago  conquered 
the  environment  so  successfully  that  he  has  never  since  had  to 
exert  himself  in  physical  combat  in  this  direction;  but  the  fight- 
ing instinct  remained  and  could  not  be  baulked  without  causing 
uneasiness.  Spurred  on  by  a  complex  set  of  psychological  and 
economic  stimuli,  man  took  to  fighting  his  own  kind,  to  a  degree 
that  no  other  species  shows. 

Now  contrary  to  what  the  militarist  philosophers  affirm,  this 
particular  sort  of  ''struggle  for  existence"  is  not  a  necessity  to 
the  futher  progressive  evolution  of  the  race.  On  the  contrary 
it  more  frequently  reverses  evolution  and  makes  the  race  go 
backward,  rather  than  forward.  ^ 

The  struggle  for  existence  which  makes  the  race  progress  is 
principally  that  of  the  species  with  its  environment,  not  that  of 
some  members  of  the  species  with  others.  If  the  latter  struggle 
could  be  supplanted  by  the  former  then  racial  evolution  would 
go  ahead  steadily  without  the  continuous  reversals  that  war- 
fare now  gives. 

^  See  Woods,Frederick  Adams,  and  Baltzly,  Alexander,  Is  War  Diminishing?  New 
York,  19 16. 


328  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

William  James  saw,  we  believe,  the  true  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem of  militarism,  when  he  wrote  his  famous  essay  on  The 
Moral  Equivalent  of  War.  Here  is  man,  full  of  fighting  in- 
stinct which  will  not  be  baulked.  What  is  he  to  do?  Professor 
James  suggested  that  the  youth  of  the  nation  be  conscripted  to 
fight  the'  environment,  thus  getting  the  fight  "out  of  its  system" 
and  rendering  a  real  service  to  the  race  by  constructive  reclama- 
tion work,  instead  of  slaying  each  other  and  thus  turning  the 
hands  of  the  evolutionary  clock  backward. 

When  education  has  given  everyone  the  evolutionary  and  eu- 
genic view  of  man  as  a  species  adapted  to  his  environment,  it 
may  be  possible  to  work  out  some  such  solution  as  this  of 
James.  The  only  immediate  course  of  action  open  seems  to 
be  to  seek,  if  possible,  to  diminish  the  frequency  of  war  by 
subduing  nations  which  start  wars  and,  by  the  organization  of 
a  League  to  Enforce  Peace;  to  avoid  war-provoking  conquests; 
to  diminish  as  much  as  possible  the  disastrous  effects  of  war 
when  it  does  come,  and  to  work  for  the  progress  of  science 
and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  which  will  eventually  make 
possible  the  greater  step,  effective  international  organization. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS 

Scientific  plant  breeders  to-day  have  learned  that  their  success 
often  depends  on  the  care  with  which  they  study  the  genealogy 
of  their  plants. 

Live-stock  breeders  admit  that  their  profession  is  on  a  sure 
scientific  basis  only  to  the  extent  that  the  genealogy  of  the 
animals  used  is  known. 

Human  genealogy  is  one  of  the  oldest  manifestations  of  man's 
intellectual  activity,  but  until  recently  it  has  been  subservient 
to  sentimental  purposes,  or  pursued  from  historical  or  legal 
motives.    Biology  has  had  no  place  in  it. 

Genealogy,  however,  has  not  altogether  escaped  the  re- 
examination which  all  sciences  received  after  the  Darwinian 
movement  revolutionized  modern  thought.  Numerous  ways 
have  been  pointed  out  in  which  it  could  be  brought  into  line 
with  the  new  way  of  looking  at  man  and  his  world.  The  field 
of  genealogy  has  already  been  invaded  at  many  points  by  biol- 
ogists, seeking  the  furtherance  of  their  own  aims. 

It  will  be  worth  while  to  discuss  briefly  the  relations  between 
the  conventional  genealogy  and  eugenics.  It  may  be  that  gen- 
ealogy could  become  an  even  more  valuable  branch  of  human 
knowledge  than  it  now  is,  if  it  were  more  closely  aligned  with 
biology.    In  order  to  test  this  possibility,  one  must  inquire: 

(i)  What  is  genealogy? 

(2)  What  does  it  now  attempt  to  do? 

(3)  What  faults,  from  the  eugenist's  standpoint,  seem  to  ex- 
ist in  present  genealogical  methods? 

(4)  What  additions  should  be  made  to  the  present  methods? 

(5)  What  can  be  expected  of  it,  after  it  is  revised  in  accord- 
ance with  the  ideas  of  the  eugenist? 

The  answer  to  the  first  question,  "What  is  genealogy?"  may 

329 


330  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

be  brief.  Genealogy  may  be  envisaged  from  several  points.  It 
serves  history.  It  has  a  legal  function,  which  is  of  more  con- 
sequence abroad  than  in  America.  It  has  social  significance, 
in  bolstering  family  pride  and  creating  a  feeling  of  family 
solidarity — this  is  perhaps  its  chief  office  in  the  United  States. 
It  has,  or  can  have,  biological  significance,  and  this  in  two  ways: 
either  in  relation  to  pure  science  or  applied  science.  In  connec- 
tion with  pure  science,  its  function  is  to  furnish  means  for  getting 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  heredity.  In  application,  its  function 
is  to  furnish  a  knowledge  of  the  inherited  characters  of  any  given 
individual,  in  order  to  make  it  possible  for  the  individual  to  find 
his  place  in  the  world  and,  in  particular,  to  marry  wisely.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  use  of  genealogy  in  the  applied  science  of 
eugenics  is  dependent  on  previous  research  by  geneticists;  for 
marriage  matings  which  take  account  of  heredity  can  not  be 
made  unless  the  mode  of  inheritance  of  human  traits  has  pre- 
viously been  discovered. 

The  historical,  social,  legal  and  other  aspects  of  genealogy  do 
not  concern  the  present  discussion.  We  shall  discuss  only  the 
biological  aspect;  not  only  because  it  alone  is  germane  to  the 
present  book,  but  because  we  consider  it  to  have  by  far  the 
greatest  true  value,  accepting  the  criterion  of  value  as  that  which 
increases  the  welfare  of  mankind.  By  this  criterion,  the  his- 
torical, legal  and  social  aspects  of  genealogy  will  be  seen,  with  a 
little  reflection,  to  be  of  secondary  importance  to  its  biological 
aspect. 

(2)  Genealogy  now  is  too  often  looked  upon  as  an  end  in 
itself.  It  would  be  recognized  as  a  science  of  much  greater 
value  to  the  world  if  it  were  considered  not  an  end  but  a  means 
to  a  far  greater  end  than  it  alone  can  supply.  It  has,  indeed, 
been  contended,  even  by  such  an  authority  as  Ottokar  Lorenz, 
who  is  often  called  the  father  of  modem  scientific  genealogy, 
that  a  knowledge  of  his  own  ancestry  will  tell  each  individual 
exactly  what  he  himself  is.  This  appears  to  be  the  basis  of 
Lorenz's  valuation  of  genealogy.  It  is  a  step  in  the  right  direc- 
tion :  but 

(3)  The  present  methods  of  genealogy  are  inadequate  to 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS 


331 


support  such  a  claim.    Its  methods  are  still  based  mainly  on  the 
historical,  legal  and  social  functions.     A  few  of  the  faults  of 
method  in  genealogy,  which  the  eugenist  most  deplores,  are: 
(a)  The  information  which  is  of  most  value  is  exactly  that 

■tO  DiO  OiO  DiO  qo  DiO  DK3  DiO  DiO  diO  QO  DiO  DiO  DiO  D|oqo 


ItO   DtO  DtO   D-rO   b-rO   UrO  QrO   DrO 


o 


o 


■6 


-o 


D 


■o 


■O 


O 


I      I      Unhnoufi  /Inceslm. 
HU    Knoyn  /Inccsly. 


UNE  OF  ASCENT  THAT  CARRIES  THE  FAMILY  NAME 
Fig.  40. — ^In  some  pedigrees,  particularly  those  dealing  with  antiquity,  the  only  part 
known  is  the  line  of  ascent  which  carries  the  family  name, — what  animal  breeders 
call  the  tail-male.  In  such  cases  it  is  evident  that  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  geneticist 
practically  nothing  is  known.  How  insignificant  any  single  line  of  ascent  is,  by  com- 
parison with  the  whole  ancestry,  even  for  a  few  generations,  is  graphically  shown  by 
the  above  chart.    It  is  assumed  in  this  chart  that  no  cousin  marriages  took  place. 


which  genealogy  ordinarily  does  not  furnish.  Dates  of  birth, 
death  and  marriage  of  an  ancestor  are  of  interest,  but  of  limited 
biological  importance.  The  facts  about  that  ancestor  which 
vitally  concern  his  living  descendant  are  the  facts  of  his  char- 
acter, physical  and  mental;  and  these  facts  are  given  in  very 
few  genealogies. 

(b)  Genealogies  are  commonly  too  incomplete  to  be  of  real 
value.  Sometimes  they  deal  only  with  the  direct  male  line  of 
ascent — the  line  that  bears  the  family  name,  or  what  animal 


332  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

breeders  call  the  tail-male.  In  this  case,  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  they  are  nearly  devoid  of  genuine  value.  It  is  customary 
to  imagine  that  there  is  some  special  virtue  inherent  in  that  line 
of  descent  which  carries  the  family  name.  Some  one  remarks,  for 
instance,  to  Mr.  Jones  that  he  seems  to  be  fond  of  the  sea. 

"Yes,"  he  replies,  "You  know  the  Joneses  have  been  sailors 
for  many  generations." 

But  the  small  contribution  of  heredity  made  to  an  indi- 
vidual by  the  line  of  descent  carrying  his  family  name,  in  com- 
parison with  the  rest  of  his  ancestry,  may  be  seen  from  Fig.  40. 

Such  incomplete  pedigrees  are  rarely  published  nowadays, 
but  in  studying  historic  characters,  one  frequently  finds  nothing 
more  than  the  single  line  of  ascent  in  the  family  name.  For- 
tunately, American  genealogies  rarely  go  to  this  extreme,  un- 
less it  be  in  the  earliest  generations;  but  it  is  common  enough 
for  them  to  deal  only  with  the  direct  ancestors  of  the  individual, 
omitting  all  brothers  and  sisters  of  those  ancestors.  Although 
this  simplifies  the  work  of  the  genealogist  immensely,  it  deprives 
it  of  value  to  a  corresponding  degree. 

(c)  As  the  purpose  of  genealogy  in  this  country  has  been 
largely  social,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  in  too  many  cases  discredit- 
able data  have  been  tacitly  omitted  from  the  records.  The 
anti-social  individual,  the  feeble-minded,  the  insane,  the  al- 
coholic, the  "generally  no-count,"  has  been  glossed  over.  Such 
a  lack  of  candor  is  not  in  accord  with  the  scientific  spirit,  and 
makes  one  uncertain,  in  the  use  of  genealogies,  to  what  extent 
one  is  really  getting  all  the  facts.  There  are  few  families  of 
any  size  which  have  not  one  such  member  or  more,  not  many 
generations  removed.  To  attempt  to  conceal  the  fact  is  not 
only  unethical  but  from  the  eugenist's  point  of  view,  at 
any  rate,  it  is  a  falsification  of  records  that  must  be  regarded 
with  great  disapproval.  At  present  it  is  hard  to  say  to  what 
extent  undesirable  traits  occur  in  the  most  distinguished  families; 
and  it  is  of  great  importance  that  this  should  be  learned. 

Maurice  Fishberg  contends  ^  that  many  Jewish  families  are 

1  See  an  interesting  series  of  five  articles  in  The  American  Hebrew,  Jan  and  Feb., 
1917. 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS  333 

characterized  by  extremes, — that  in  each  generation  they  have 
produced  more  abihty  and  also  more  disability  than  would  or- 
dinarily be  expected.  This  seems  to  be  true  of  some  of  the  more 
prominent  old  American  families  as  well.  On  the  other  hand, 
large  families  can  be  found,  such  as  the  remarkable  family  of 
New  England  office-holders  described  by  MertonT.  Goodrich,^  in 
which  there  is  a  steady  production  of  civic  worth  in  every  gen- 
eration with  almost  no  mental  defectives  or  gross  physical  de- 
fectives. In  such  a  family  there  is  a  high  sustained  level.  It  is 
such  strains  which  eugenists  wish  especially  to  increase. 

In  this  connection  it  is  again  worth  noting  that  a  really  great 
man  is  rarely  found  in  an  ancestry  devoid  of  ability.  This  was 
pointed  out  in  the  first  chapter,  but  is  certain  to  strike  the 
genealogist's  attention  forcibly.  Abraham  Lincoln  is  often 
quoted  as  an  exception ;  but  more  recent  studies  of  his  ancestry 
have  shown  that  he  is  not  really  an  exception;  that,  as  Ida  M. 
Tarbell  ^  says,  "So  far  from  his  later  career  being  unaccounted 
for  in  his  origin  and  early  history,  it  is  as  fully  accounted  for 
as  is  the  case  of  any  man."  The  Lincoln  family  was  one  of  the 
best  in  America,  and  while  Abraham's  own  father  was  an  eccen- 
tric person,  he  was  yet  a  man  of  considerable  force  of  character, 
by  no  means  the  "poor  white  trash"  which  he  is  often  repre- 
sented to  have  been.  The  Hanks  family,  to  which  the  Eman- 
cipator's mother  belonged,  had  also  maintained  a  high  level  of 
ability  in  every  generation;  furthermore,  Thomas  Lincoln  and 
Nancy  Hanks,  the  parents  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  w^re  first 
cousins. 

The  more  difficult  cases,  for  the  eugenist,  are  rather  to  be 
found  in  such  ancestries  as  those  of  Louis  Pasteur  and  Michael 
Faraday.  Pasteur^  might  perhaps  be  justly  considered  the 
greatest  man  France  has  ever  produced;  his  father  was  a  non- 
commissioned soldier  who  came  of  a  long  line  of  tanners,  while 
his  mother's  family  had  been  gardeners  for  generations.    Far- 

^  Journal  of  Heredity,  VIII,  pp.  277-283,  June,  1917. 

^The  Early  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  New  York,  1896.  For  the  Emancipator's 
maternal  line  see  Nancy  Hanks,  by  Caroline  Hanks  Hitchcock.     New  York,  1899. 

'  The  Life  of  Pasteur  by  his  son-in-law,  Ren6  Vallery  Radot,  should  be  read  by 
every  student  of  biology. 


334  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

aday,  who  is  worthy  to  be  placed  close  to  Charles  Darwin  among 
eminent  Englishmen,  was  the  son  of  a  blacksmith  and  a  farmer's 
daughter.  Such  pedigrees  are  striking;  and  yet,  as  Frederick 
Adams  Woods  has  remarked,  they  ought  to  strengthen  rather 
than  to  weaken  one's  belief  in  the  force  of  heredity.  When  it  is 
considered  how  rarely  such  an  ancestry  produces  a  great  man, 
it  must  be  fairly  evident  that  his  greatness  is  due  to  an  accidental 
conjunction  of  favorable  traits,  as  the  modern  theory  of  ge- 
netics holds ;  and  that  greatness  is  not  due  to  the  inheritance  of 
acquired  characters,  on  which  hypothesis  Pasteur  and  Faraday 
would  indeed  be  difficult  to  explain. 

Cases  of  this  sort,  even  though  involving  much  less  famous 
people,  will  be  found  in  almost  every  genealogy,  and  add  greatly 
to  the  interest  of  its  study,  as  well  as  offering  valuable  data  to 
the  professional  geneticist. 

(d)  Even  if  the  information  it  furnishes  were  more  complete, 
human  genealogy  would  not  justify  the  claims  sometimes  made 
for  it  as  a  science,  because,  to  use  a  biological  phrase,  "the  mat- 
ings  are  not  controlled."  The  results  of  a  certain  experiment 
are  exhibited,  but  can  not  be  interpreted  unless  one  knows  what 
the  results  would  have  been,  had  the  preceding  conditions  been 
varied  in  this  way  or  in  that  way.  These  controlled  experi- 
ments can  be  made  in  plant  and  animal  breeding;  they  have  been 
made  by  the  thousand,  by  the  hundred  thousand,  for  m.any 
years.  They  can  not  be  made  in  human  society.  It  is,  of  course, 
not  desirable  that  they  should  be  made;  but  the  consequence 
is  that  the  biological  meaning  of  human  history,  the  real  import 
of  genealogy,  can  not  be  known  unless  it  is  interpreted  in  the 
light  of  modem  plant  and  animal  breeding.  It  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  genealogy  go  into  partnership  with  genetics, 
the  general  science  of  heredity.  If  a  spirit  of  false  pride  leads 
genealogists  to  hold  aloof  from  these  experiments,  they  will 
make  slow  progress.  The  interpretation  of  genealogy  in  the 
light  of  modem  research  in  heredity  through  the  experimental 
breeding  of  plants  and  animals  is  full  of  hope;  without  such 
light,  it  will  be  discouragingly  slow  work. 

Genealogists  are  usually  proud  of  their  pedigrees;  they  usu- 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS  335 

ally  have  a  right  to  be.  But  their  pride  should  not  lead  them  to 
scorn  the  pedigrees  of  some  of  the  peas,  and  com,  snapdragons 
and  sugar  beets,  bulldogs  and  Shorthorn  cattle,  with  which 
geneticists  have  been  working  during  the  last  generation;  for 
these  humble  pedigrees  may  throw  more  light  on  their  own 
than  a  century  of  research  in  purely  human  material. 

The  science  of  genealogy  will  not  have  full  meaning  and  full 
value  to  those  who  pursue  it,  unless  they  bring  themselves  to 
look  on  men  and  women  as  organisms  subject  to  the  same  laws 
of  heredity  and  variation  as  other  living  things.  Biologists  were 
not  long  ago  told  that  it  was  essential  for  them  to  learn  to  think 
like  genealogists.  For  the  purpose  of  eugenics,  neither  science 
is  complete  without  the  other;  and  we  believe  that  it  is  not  in- 
vidious to  say  that  biologists  have  been  quicker  to  realize  this 
than  have  genealogists.  The  Golden  Age  of  genealogy  is  yet  to 
come. 

(4)  In  addition  to  the  correction  of  these  faulty  methods, 
there  are  certain  extensions  of  genealogical  method  which  could 
advantageously  be  made  without  great  difficulty. 

(a)  More  written  records  should  be  kept,  and  less  dependence 
placed  on  oral  communication.  The  obsolescent  family  Bible, 
with  its  chronicle  of  births,  deaths  and  marriages,  is  an  institu- 
tion of  too  great  value  in  more  ways  than  one,  to  be  given  up. 
The  United  States  have  not  the  advantage  of  much  of  the  ma- 
chinery of  State  registration  which  aids  European  genealogy, 
and  while  working  for  better  registration  of  vital  statistics,  it 
should  be  a  matter  of  pride  with  every  family  to  keep  its  own 
archives. 

(b)  Family  trees  should  be  kept  in  more  detail,  including  all 
brothers  and  sisters  in  every  family,  no  matter  at  what  age  they 
died,  and  including  as  many  collaterals  as  possible.  This  means 
more  work  for  the  genealogist,  but  the  results  will  be  of  much 
value  to  science. 

(c)  More  family  traits  should  be  marked._Those  at  present 
recorded  are  mostly  of  a  social  or  economic  nature,  and  are  of 
little  real  significance  after  the  death  of  their  possessor.  But  the 
traits  of  his  mind  and  body  are  likely  to  go  on  to  his  descend- 


336  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

ants  indefinitely.     These  are  therefore  the  facts  of  his  life  on 
which  attention  should  be  focused. 

(d)  More  pictorial  data  should  be  added.  Photographs  of  the 
members  of  the  family,  at  all  ages,  should  be  carefully  pre- 
served. Measurements  equally  deserve  attention.  The  door 
jamb  is  not  a  satisfactory  place  for  recording  the  heights  of 
children,  particularly  in  this  day  when  removals  are  so  frequent. 
Complete  anthropometric  measurements,  such  as  every  member 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  most  college  stu- 
dents, and  many  other  people  are  obliged  to  undergo  once  or 
periodically,  should  be  placed  on  file. 

(e)  Pedigrees  should  be  traced  upward  from  a  living  individ- 
ual, rather  than  downward  from  some  hero  long  since  dead. 
Of  course,  the  ideal  method  would  be  to  combine  these  two, 
or  to  keep  duplicate  pedigrees,  one  a  table  of  ascendants  and  the 
other  of  descendants,  in  the  same  stock. 

Genealogical  data  of  the  needed  kind,  however,  can  not  be 
reduced  to  a  mere  table  or  a  family  tree.  The  ideal  genealogy 
starts  with  a  whole  fraternity — the  individual  who  is  making 
it  and  all  his  brothers  and  sisters.  It  describes  fully  the  frater- 
nity to  which  the  father  belongs,  giving  an  account  of  each 
member,  of  the  husband  or  wife  of  that  member  (if  married) 
and  their  children,  who  are  of  course  the  first  cousins  of  the  maker 
of  the  genealogical  study.  It  does  the  same  for  the  mother's 
fraternity.  Next  it  considers  the  fraternity  to  which  the  father's 
father  belongs,  considers  their  consorts  and  their  children  and 
grandchildren,  and  then  takes  up  the  study  of  the  fraternity  of 
the  father's  mother  in  the  same  way.  The  mother's  parents 
next  receive  attention;  and  then  the  earlier  generations  are 
similarly  treated,  as  far  as  the  available  records  will  allow.  A 
pedigree  study  constructed  on  this  plan  really  shows  what  traits 
are  running  through  the  families  involved,  and  is  vastly  more 
significant  than  a  mere  chain  of  links,  even  though  this  might 
run  through  a  dozen  generations. 

(5)  With  these  changes,  genealogy  would  become  the  study 
of  heredity,  rather  than  the  study  of  lineage. 

It  is  not  meant  to  say  that  the  study  of  heredity  is  nothing 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS  337 

more  than  applied  genealogy.  As  understood  nowadays,  it 
includes  mathematical  and  biological  territory  which  must 
always  be  foreign  to  genealogy.  It  might  be  said  that  in  so  far 
as  man  is  concerned,  heredity  is  the  interpretation  of  genealogy, 
and  eugenics  the  application  of  heredity.  Genealogy  should 
give  its  students  a  vision  of  the  species  as  a  great  group  of  ever- 
changing,  interrelated  organisms,  a  great  network  originating 
in  the  obscurity  of  the  past,  stretching  forward  into  the  ob- 
scurity of  the  future,  every  individual  in  it  organically  related 
to  every  other,  and  all  of  them  the  heritors  of  the  past  in  a  very 
real  sense. 

Genealogists  do  well  in  giving  a  realization  of  the  importance 
of  the  family,  but  they  err  if  they  base  this  teaching  altogether 
on  the  family's  pride  in  some  remote  ancestor  who,  even  though 
he  bore  the  family  name  and  was  a  prodigy  of  virtues,  probably 
counts  for  very  little  in  the  individual's  make-up  to-day.  To 
take  a  concrete  though  wholly  imaginary  illustration:  what 
man  would  not  feel  a  certain  satisfaction  in  being  a  lineal  de- 
scendant of  George  Washington?  And  yet,  if  the  Father  of  his 
Coxmtry  be  placed  at  only  four  removes  from  the  living  in- 
dividual, nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  this  hypothetical 
living  individual  had  fifteen  other  ancestors  in  George  Wash- 
ington's generation,  any  one  of  whom  may  play  as  great  or 
a  greater  part  in  his  ancestry;  and  so  remote  are  they  all  that, 
as  a  statistical  average,  it  is  calculated  that  the  contribution 
of  George  Washington  to  the  ancestry  of  the  hypothetical  hving 
individual  would  be  perhaps  not  more  than  one-third  of  1%  of 
the  total.  The  small  influence  of  one  of  these  remote  ancestors 
may  be  seen  at  a  glance,  if  a  chart  of  all  the  ancestors  up  to  the 
generation  of  the  great  hero  is  made.  Following  out  the  illus- 
tration, a  pedigree  based  on  George  Washington  would  look  like 
the  diagram  in  Fig.  41.  In  more  remote  generations,  the  prob- 
able biological  influence  of  the  ancestor  becomes  practically 
nil.  Thus  Americans  who  trace  their  descent  to  some  royal 
personage  of  England  or  the  Continent,  a  dozen  generations 
ago,  may  get  a  certain  amount  of  spiritual  satisfaction  out  of  the 
relationship,  but  they  certainly  can  derive  little  real  help,  of  a 


338 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


hereditary  kind,  from  this  ancestor.  And  when  one  goes  farther 
back, — as  to  William  the  Conqueror,  who  seems  to  rank  with 
the  Mayflower  immigrants  as  a  progenitor  of  many  descendants 
— the  claim  of  descent  becomes  really  a  joke.  If  24  generations 
have  elapsed  between  the  present  and  the  time  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  every  individual  living  to-day  must  have  had  living 
in  the  epoch  of  the  Norman  conquest  not  less  than  sixteen  mil- 
lion ancestors.    Of  course,  there  was  no  such  number  of  people 


Great 
Great 


breat      ^ 

Crand^Tenfst.\ 

Great    \_ 
CTardparertts 


O  QrO  ChO  l=h-0  DtO  QrO  DK)  DrO 


cr.^  n-r-0     D-r-O     D-T-0     D-T-O 


D 


GrandfMrenis. 


o 


0 


Tarenis, 


-6 


Indiuidual, 

THE  SMALL  VALUE  OF  A  FAMOUS,  BUT  REMOTE,  ANCESTOR 
Fig.  41. — A  living  individual  who  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  George  Washington 
might  well  take  pride  in  the  fact,  but  genetically  that  fact  might  be  of  very  little  sig- 
nificance. The  above  chart  shows  graphically  how  small  a  part  any  single  ancestor 
plays,  a  few  generations  back.  A  general  high  average  of  ability  in  an  ancestry  is  much 
more  important,  eugenically,  than  the  appearance  of  one  or  two  distinguished  individuals. 

in  all  England  and  Normandy,  at  that  time,  hence  it  is  obvious 
that  the  theoretical  number  has  been  greatly  reduced  in  every 
generation  by  consanguineous  marriages,  even  though  they 
were  between  persons  so  remotely  related  that  they  did  not  know 
they  were  related.  C.  B.  Davenport,  indeed,  has  calculated  that 
most  persons  of  the  old  American  stock  in  the  United  States  are 
related  to  each  other  not  more  remotely  than  thirtieth  cousins, 
and  a  very  large  proportion  as  closely  as  fifteenth  cousins. 

At  any  rate,  it  must  be  obvious  that  the  ancestors  of  any  per- 
son of  old  American  stock  living  to-day  must  have  included 
practically  all  the  inhabitants  of  England  and  Normandy,  in 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS  339 

the  eleventh  century.  Looking  at  the  pedigree  from  the  other 
end,  William  the  Conqueror  must  have  living  to-day  at  least 
16,000,000  descendants.  Most  of  them  can  not  trace  back  their 
pedigrees,  but  that  does  not  alter  the  fact. 

Such  considerations  give  one  a  vivid  realization  of  the  brother- 
hood of  man;  but  they  can  hardly  be  said  to  justify  any  great 
pride  in  descent  from  a  family  of  crusaders  for  instance,  except 
on  purely  sentimental  grounds. 

Descent  from  a  famous  man  or  woman  should  not  be  dis- 
paraged. It  is  a  matter  of  legitimate  pride  and  congratulation. 
But  claims  for  respect  made  on  that  ground  alone  are,  from  a 
biological  point  of  view,  negligible,  if  the  hero  is  several  genera- 
tions removed.  What  Sir  Francis  Galton  wrote  of  the  peers  of 
England  may,  with  slight  alterations,  be  given  general  applica- 
tion to  the  descendants  of  famous  people : 

"An  old  peerage  is  a  valueless  title  to  natural  gifts,  except  so 
far  as  it  may  have  been  furbished  up  by  a  succession  of  wise 
intermarriages,  ...  I  cannot  think  of  any  claim  to  respect, 
put  forward  in  modem  days,  that  is  so  entirely  an  imposture 
as  that  made  by  a  peer  on  the  ground  of  descent,  who  has  neither 
been  nobly  educated,  nor  has  any  eminent  kinsman  within  three 
degrees." 

But,  some  one  may  protest,  are  we  not  shattering  the  very 
edifice  of  which  we  are  professed  defenders,  in  thus  denying  the 
force  of  heredity?  Not  at  all.  We  wish  merely  to  emphasize 
that  a  man  has  sixteen  great-great-grandparents,  instead  of  one, 
and  that  those  in  the  maternal  lines  are  too  often  overlooked, 
although  from  a  biological  point  of  view  they  are  every  bit  as 
important  as  those  in  the  paternal  lines.  And  we  wish  further 
to  emphasize  the  point  that  it  is  the  near  relatives  who,  on  the 
whole,  represent  what  one  is.  The  great  family  which  for  a 
generation  or  two  makes  unwise  marriages,  must  live  on  its 
past  reputation  and  see  the  work  of  the  world  done  and  the  prizes 
carried  away  by  the  children  of  wiser  matings.  No  family  can 
maintain  its  eugenic  rank  merely  by  the  power  of  inertia.  Every 
marriage  that  a  member  of  the  family  makes  is  a  matter  of  vital 
concern  to  the  future  of  the  family:  and  this  is  one  of  the  lessons 


340  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

which  a  broad  science  of  genealogy  should  inculcate  in  every 
youth. 

Is  it  practicable  to  direct  genealogy  on  this  slightly  different 
line?  As  to  that,  the  genealogist  must  decide.  These  are  the 
qualifications  which  old  Professor  William  Chauncey  Fowler 
laid  down  as  essential  for  a  successful  genealogist: 

Love  of  kindred. 

Love  of  investigation. 

Active  imagination. 

Sound  and  disciplined  judgment. 

Conscientious  regard  to  truth. 

A  pleasing  style  as  a  wTiter. 

With  such  qualifications,  one  can  go  far,  and  it  would  seem 
that  one  who  possesses  them  has  only  to  fix  his  attention  upon 
the  biological  aspect  of  genealogy-,  to  become  convinced  that  his 
science  is  only  part  of  a  science,  as  long  as  it  ignores  eugenics. 
After  all,  nothing  more  is  necessary  than  a  slight  change  in  the 
point  of  view;  and  if  genealogists  can  adopt  this  new  point  of 
view,  can  add  to  their  equipment  some  familiarity  with  the  fim- 
damental  principles  of  biology  as  they  apply  to  man  and  are  laid 
down  in  the  science  of  eugenics,  the  value  of  the  science  of 
genealogy  to  the  world  ought  to  increase  at  least  five-fold  ■^■ithin 
a  generation. 

What  can  be  expected  from  a  genealogy  with  eugenic  founda- 
tion? 

First  and  foremost,  it  will  give  genetics  a  chance  to  advance 
with  more  rapidity,  in  its  study  of  man.  Genetics,  the  study 
of  heredity,  can  not  successfully  proceed  by  direct  obser%'ation 
in  the  human  species  as  it  does  with  plants  and  rapidly-breeding 
animals,  because  the  generations  are  too  long.  Less  than  three 
generations  are  of  little  value  for  genetic  researches,  and  even 
three  can  rarely  be  observed  to  advantage  by  any  one  person. 
Therefore,  second-hand  information  must  be  used.  So  far,  most 
of  this  has  been  gained  by  sending  field-workers — a  new  kind 
of  genealogist — out  among  the  members  of  a  family,  and  having 
them  collect  the  desired  information,  either  by  study  of  extant 
records,  or  by  word  of  mouth.    But  the  written  records  of  value 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS  341 

have  been  usually  negligible  in  quantity,  and  oral  communica- 
tion has  therefore  been  the  mainstay.  It  has  not  been  wholly 
satisfactory.  Few  people — aside  from  genealogists — can  give 
even  the  names  of  all  their  great-grandparents,  far  less  can  they 
tell  anything  of  importance  about  them. 

It  is  thus  to  genealogy  that  genetics  is  driven.  Unless  family 
records  are  available,  it  can  accomplish  little.  And  it  can  not 
get  these  family  records  unless  genealogists  realize  the  impor- 
tance of  furnishing  them;  for  as  has  already  been  pointed  out, 
most  genealogies  at  present  available  are  of  httle  value  to  gen- 
etics, because  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  data  they  furnish.  It  is 
only  in  the  case  of  exceptional  families,  such  as  the  royal  houses 
of  Europe,  that  enough  information  is  given  about  each  individ- 
ual to  furnish  an  opportunity  for  analysis.  What  could  be  done 
if  there  were  more  such  data  available  is  brilliantly  illustrated  in 
the  investigation  by  Frederick  Adams  Woods  of  Boston  of  the 
reigning  houses  of  Europe.  His  writings  should  be  read  by  every 
genealogist,  as  a  source  of  inspiration  as  well  as  information. 

More  such  data  must  be  obtained  in  the  future.  Genealogists 
must  begin  at  once  to  keep  family  records  in  such  a  way  that  they 
will  be  of  the  greatest  value  possible — that  they  will  serve  not 
only  family  pride,  but  bigger  purposes.  It  will  not  take  long 
to  get  together  a  large  number  of  family  histories,  in  which  the 
idea  will  be  to  tell  as  much  as  possible,  instead  of  as  little  as 
possible,  about  every  individual  mentioned. 

The  value  of  pedigrees  of  this  kind  is  greater  than  most 
people  realize. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  Remembered  that  these  traits, 
on  whose  importance  in  the  pedigree  we  have  been  insisting,  are 
responsible  not  only  for  whatever  the  individual  is,  but  for  what- 
ever society  is, — whatever  the  race  is.  They  are  not  personal 
matters,  as  C.  B.  Davenport  and  H.  H.  Laughlin  well  point  out; 
"  they  come  to  us  from  out  of  the  population  of  the  past,  and, 
in  so  far  as  we  have  children,  they  become  disseminated  through- 
out the  population  of  the  future.  Upon  such  traits  society  is 
built;  good  or  bad  they  determine  the  fate  of  our  society.  Apart 
from  migration,  there  is  only  one  way  to  get  socially  desirable 


342  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

traits  into  our  social  life,  and  that  is  reproduction;  there  is  only 
one  way  to  get  them  out,  by  preventing  the  reproduction.  All 
social  welfare  work  is  merely  education  of  the  germs  of  traits; 
it  does  not  provide  such  germs.  In  the  absence  of  the  germs  the 
traits  can  not  develop.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  with 
difficulty,  if  possible  at  all,  by  means  of  the  strongest  repressive 
measures  merely,  to  prevent  the  development  of  undesirable 
hereditary  traits.  Society  can  treat  the  delinquent  individual 
more  reasonably,  more  effectively,  and  more  humanely,  if  it 
knows  the  'past  performance'  of  his  germ-plasm." 

In  addition  to  their  importance  to  society,  a  knowledge  of  the 
traits  of  a  pedigree  has  a  great  direct  importance  to  the  individ- 
ual; one  of  the  most  valuable  things  to  be  learned  from  that 
knowledge  is  the  answer  to  the  question,  "What  shall  a  boy  or 
girl  do?  What  career  shall  one  lay  out  for  one's  children?  "  A 
knowledge  of  the  child's  inborn  nature,  such  as  can  be  had  only 
through  study  of  his  ancestry,  will  guide  those  who  have  his 
education  in  hand,  and  will  further  guide  those  who  decide,  or 
help  the  child  decide,  what  work  to  take  up  in  life.  This  helps 
to  put  the  problem  of  vocational  guidance  on  a  sound  basis, — 
the  basis  of  the  individual's  inherent  aptitudes. 

Not  too  much  must  be  expected  from  vocational  guidance 
at  the  present  time,  but  in  the  case  of  traits  that  are  inherited, 
it  is  a  fair  inference  that  a  child  is  more  likely  to  be  highly  en- 
dowed with  a  trait  which  both  parents  possess,  than  with  one 
that  only  one  parent  possesses.  "Among  the  traits  which  have 
been  said  to  occur  in  some  such  direct  hereditary  way,"  H.  L. 
HoUingworth  ^  observes,  "or  as  the  result  of  unexplained  muta- 
tion or  deviation  from  type,  are:  mathematical  aptitude,  ability 
in  drawing,^  musical  composition,^  singing,  poetic  reaction,  mili- 

^  HoUingworth,  H.  L.,  Vocational  Psychology,  pp.  212-213,  New  York,  igi6. 

*  Sir  Francis  Gallon  and  C.  B.  Davenport  have  called  attention  to  the  probable 
inheritance  of  artistic  ability  and  lately  H.  Drinkwater  {Journal  of  Genetics,  July, 
1916),  has  attempted  to  prove  that  it  is  due  to  a  Mendelian  unit.  The  evidence 
alleged  is  inadequate  to  prove  that  the  trait  is  inherited  in  any  particular  way,  but 
the  pedigrees  cited  by  these  three  investigators,  and  the  boyhood  histories  of  such 
artists  as  Benjamin  West,  Giotto,  Ruskin  and  Turner,  indicate  that  an  hereditary 
basis  exists. 

'  The  difficulty  about  accepting  such  traits  as  this  is  that  they  are  almost  im- 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS  343 

tary  strategy,  chess  playing.  Pitch  discrimination  seems  to  de- 
pend on  structural  factors  which  are  not  susceptible  of  improve- 
ment by  practice.^  The  same  may  be  said  of  various  forms  of 
professional  athletic  achievement.  Color  blindness  seems  to  be 
an  instance  of  the  conspicuous  absence  of  such  a  unit  character- 
istic." 

Again,  the  knowledge  of  ancestry  is  an  essential  factor  in  the 
wise  selection  of  a  husband  or  wife.  Insistence  has  been  laid 
on  this  point  in  an  earlier  chapter  of  this  book,  and  it  is  not 
necessary  here  to  repeat  what  was  there  said.  But  it  seems  cer- 
tain that  ancestry  will  steadily  play  a  larger  part  in  marriage 
selection  in  the  future;  it  is  at  least  necessary  to  know  that  one 
is  not  marrying  into  a  family  that  carries  the  taint  of  serious 
hereditary  defect,  even  if  one  knows  nothing  more.  An  intel- 
ligent study  of  genealogy  will  do  much,  we  believe,  to  bring  about 
the  intelligent  selection  of  the  man  or  woman  with  whom  one  is 
to  fall  in  love. 

In  addition  to  these  general  considerations,  it  is  evident  that 
genealogy,  properly  carried  out,  would  throw  light  on  most  of 
the  specific  problems  with  which  eugenics  is  concerned,  or  which 
fall  in  the  field  of  genetics.  A  few  examples  of  these  problems 
may  be  mentioned,  in  addition  to  those  which  are  discussed  in 
various  other  chapters  of  this  book. 

I.  The  supposed  inferiority  of  first-born  children  has  been 
debated  at  some  length  during  the  last  decade,  but  is  not  yet 
wholly  settled.  It  appears  possible  that  the  first-born  may  be, 
on  the  average,  inferior  both  physically  and  mentally  to  the 
children  who  come  directly  after  him;  on  the  other  hand,  the 

possible  of  exact  definition.  The  long  teaching  experience  of  Mrs.  Evelyn  Fletcher- 
Copp  {Journal  of  Heredity,  VII,  297-305,  July,  igi6)  suggests  that  any  child  of 
ordinary  ability  can  and  will  compose  music  if  properly  taught,  but  of  course  ia 
different  degree. 

^  Seashore,  C.  E.,  in  Psychol.  Monogs,  XIII,  No.  i,  pp.  21-60,  Dec,  1910.  See 
also  Fletcher-Copp,  ubi  sup.  Mrs.  Copp  declares  that  the  gift  of  "positive  pitch" 
or  "absolute  pitch,"  i.  e.,  the  ability  to  name  any  sound  that  is  heard,  "may  be 
acquired,  speaking  very  conservatively,  by  80%  of  normal  children,"  if  they  begin 
at  an  early  age.  It  may  be  that  this  discrepancy  with  Seashore's  careful  laboratory 
tests  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  pupils  and  teachers  trained  by  Mrs.  Copp  are  a  se- 
lected lot,  to  start  with. 


344 


APPLIED  EUGENICS 


IOOBabics 

BOHK. 


n-iz 


Those  who 
ncACH^O, 


Those  WHO 
Those  who 

ftCACH  (}0. 


Those  who 

RCACH  90. 


l3-f-<-S,ZC0F 


HISTORY  OF  loo  BABIES 
Fig.  42. — The  top  of  the  diagram  shows  the  children  "starting 
from  scratch."  By  following  down  the  vertical  lines,  one  can  see  that 
their  longevity  depends  largely  on  the  size  of  family  from  which  they 
come.  .Those  who  had  10  or  a  dozen  brothers  and  sisters  are  most 
likely  to  live  to  extreme  age.  Alexander  Graham  Bell's  data,  2964  mem- 
bers of  the  Hyde  family  in  America. 

number  of  first-bom  who  attain  eminence  is  greater  than  would 
be  expected  on  the  basis  of  pure  chance.  More  data  are  needed 
to  clear  up  this  problem.^ 

^  The  contributions  on  this  subject  are  very  widely  scattered  through  p)eriodical 
literature.  The  most  important  is  Karl  Pearson's  memoir  (1914),  reviewed  in  the 
Journal  of  Heredity,  VI,  pp.  332-336,  July,  1915.  See  aJso  Gini,  Corrado,  "The 
Superiority  of  the  Eldest,"  Journal  of  Heredity,  VI,  37-39,  Jan.,  1915. 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS 


345 


100  TCRSONS 
0FA6EXO- 


Those  WHO 
uve.  TO  40. 


Those  who 
uv£.  TO  60. 


Thosc  who 
Live,  to  go. 


/3+-  <—  Size,  or 
'^  Family. 

ADULT  MORTALITY 
Fig.  43. — If  child  mortality  is  eliminated,  and  only  those  individuals 
studied  who  live  to  the  age  of  20  or  longer,  the  small  families  are  still 
found  to  be  handicapped.  In  general  it  may  be  said  that  the  larger  the 
family,  the  longer  a  member  of  it  will  live.  Large  families  (in  a  normal, 
healthy  section  of  the  population)  indicate  vitality  on  the  part  of  the  parents. 
This  does  not,  of  course,  hold  good  in  the  slums,  where  mental  and  financial 
inefficiency  are  abundant.  Within  certain  classes,  however,  it  may  be  said 
with  confidence  that  the  weaklings  in  the  population  are  most  likely  to  be 
from  small  families.    Alexander  Graham  Bell's  data. 


2.  The  advantage  to  a  child  of  being  a  member  of  a  large  or 
small  family  is  a  question  of  importance.  In  these  days  of  birth 
control,  the  argument  is  frequently  heard  that  large  families 
are  an  evil  of  themselves,  the  children  in  them  being  handi- 


346  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

capped  by  the  excessive  child-bearing  of  the  mother.  The 
statistics  cited  in  support  of  this  claim  are  drawn  from  the 
slimis,  where  the  families  are  marked  by  poverty  and  by  physi- 
cal and  mental  inferiority.  It  can  easily  be  shown,  by  a  study  of 
more  favored  famiUes,  that  the  best  children  come  from  the 
large  fraternities.  In  fact  Alexander  Graham  Bell  foimd  evi- 
dence,^ in  his  investigation  of  the  Hyde  Family  in  America,  that 
the  families  of  lo  or  more  children  were  those  which  showed 
the  greatest  longevity  (see  Figs.  42  and  43).  In  this  connec- 
tion, longevity  is  of  course  a  mark  of  vitality  and  physical  fitness. 

3.  The  question  of  the  effect  of  child-bearing  on  the  mother 
is  equally  important,  since  exponents  of  birth  control  are  urging 
that  mothers  should  not  bear  more  children  than  they  desire. 
A.  O.  Powys'  careful  study  -  of  the  admirable  vital  statistics 
of  New  South  Wales  showed  that  the  mothers  who  lived  longest 
were  those  who  bore  from  five  to  seven  children. 

4.  The  age  at  which  men  and  women  should  marry  has  not 
yet  been  sufficiently  determined,  on  biological  grounds.  Statis- 
tics so  far  compiled  do  not  indicate  that  the  age  of  the  father  has 
any  direct  influence  on  the  character  of  the  children,  but  the  age 
of  the  mother  undoubtedly  exercises  a  strong  influence  on  them. 
Thus  it  is  now  well  established  ^  that  infant  mortality  is  lowest 
among  the  children  of  young  mothers, — say  from  20  to  25  years 
of  age, — and  that  delay  in  childbearing  after  that  age  penalizes 
the  children  (see  Fig.  44).  There  is  also  some  evidence  that, 
altogether  apart  from  the  infant  mortality,  the  children  of  young 
mothers  attain  a  greater  longevity  than  do  those  of  older  women. 
More  facts  are  needed,  to  show  how  much  of  this  effect  is  due 
to  the  age  of  the  mother,  how  much  to  her  experience,  and  how 
much  to  the  influence  of  the  nimiber  of  children  she  has  pre- 
viously borne. 

5.  Assortative  mating,  consanguineous  marriage,  the  inheri- 

^  Journal  of  Heredity,  VIII,  pp.  299-302,  July,  1917. 

*  Biometrika,  IV,  pp.  233-286,  London,  1905. 

'  See,  for  example.  Journal  of  Heredity,  V'lII,  pp.  394-396,  September,  191 7. 
A  large  body  of  evidence  from  European  sources,  bearing  on  the  relation  between 
various  characters  of  the  offspring,  and  the  age  of  the  parents,  was  brought  together 
by  Corrado  Gini  in  Vol.  II,  Problems  in  Eugenics  (London,  1913). 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS 


347 


tance  of  a  tendency  to  disease,  longevity,  sex-linked  heredity,  sex- 
determination,  the  production  of  twins,  and  many  other  prob- 
lems of  interest  to  the  general  pubUc  as  well  as  to  the  biologist, 
are  awaiting  the  collection  of  fuller  data.    All  such  problems 


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INFLUENCE  OF  MOTHER'S  AGE 
Fig.  44. — As  measured  by  the  percentage  of  infant  deaths,  those  children  show  the 
greatest  vitality  who  were  born  to  mothers  between  the  ages  of  20  and  25.  Infant 
mortaUty  increases  steadily  as  the  mother  grows  older.  In  this  case  the  youngest 
mothers  (those  under  20  years  of  age)  do  not  make  quite  as  good  a  showing  as  those  who 
are  a  Uttle  older,  but  in  other  studies  the  youngest  mothers  have  made  excellent  records. 
In  general,  such  studies  all  show  that  the  babies  are  penalized  if  marriage  is  delayed  be- 
yond the  age  of  25,  or  if  child-bearing  is  unduly  delayed  after  marriage.  Alexander 
Graham  Bell's  data. 

will  be  illuminated,  when  more  genealogies  are  kept  on  a  biologi- 
cal basis. 

Here,  however,  an  emphatic  warning  against  superficial  in- 
vestigation must  be  uttered.  The  medical  profession  has  been 
particularly  hasty,  many  times,  in  reporting  cases  which  were 
assumed  to  demonstrate  heredity.  The  child  was  so  and  so; 
it  was  found  on  inquiry  that  the  father  was  also  so  and  so: 
Post  hoc,  ergo  propter  hoc — it  was  heredity.  Such  a  method  of 
investigation  is  calculated  to  bring  genetics  into  disrepute, 
and  would  hazard  the  credit  of  genealogy.  As  a  fact,  one  case 
counts  for  practically  nothing  as  proof  of  hereditary  influence; 


348  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

even  half  a  dozen  or  a  dozen  may  be  of  no  significance.  There 
are  two  ways  in  which  genealogical  data  can  be  analyzed  to 
deduce  biological  laws:  one  is  based  on  the  application  of  statis- 
tical and  graphic  methods  to  the  data,  and  needs  some  hundreds 
of  cases  to  be  of  value;  the  other  is  by  pedigree-study,  and  needs 
at  least  three  generations  of  pedigree,  usually  covering  numerous 
collaterals,  to  oflfer  important  results.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  anyone  with  a  sufficiently  complete  record  of  his  own  an- 
cestry would  necessarily  be  able  by  inspection  to  deduce  from 
it  any  important  contribution  to  science.  But  if  enough  com- 
plete family  records  are  made  available,  the  professional  geneti- 
cist can  be  called  into  cooperation,  can  supplement  the  human 
record  wnth  his  knowledge  of  the  results  achieved  by  carefully 
controlled  animal  and  plant  breeding,  and  between  them,  the 
genealogist  and  the  geneticist  can  in  most  cases  arrive  at 
the  truth.  That  such  truth  is  of  the  highest  importance 
to  any  family,  and  equally  to  society  as  a  whole,  must  be 
evident. 

Let  the  genealogist,  then,  bring  together  data  on  every  trait 
he  can  think  of.  As  a  guide  and  stimulus,  he  should  read  the 
opening  chapters  of  Herbert's  Spencer's  Autobiography,  or  of 
Karl  Pearson's,  Life,  Letters  and  Labors  of  Sir  Francis  Galton, 
or  C.  B.  Davenport's  study  ^  of  C.  O.  Whitman,  one  of  the  fore- 
most American  biologists.  He  will  also  find  help  in  Bulletin 
No.  13  of  the  Eugenics  Record  Office,  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long 
Island,  New  York.  It  is  entitled.  How  to  Make  a  Eugenical 
Family  Sttidy,  and  gives  a  list  of  questions  which  should  be 
answered,  and  points  which  should  be  noted.  With  some  such 
list  as  this,  or  even  with  his  own  common-sense,  the  genealogist 
may  seek  to  ascertain  as  much  as  possible  about  the  significant 
facts  in  the  life  of  his  ancestors,  bearing  in  mind  that  the  geneti- 
cist will  ask  two  questions  about  every  trait  mentioned: 

1.  Is  this  characteristic  inherited? 

2.  If  so,  how? 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  geneticist  is  often  as  much 

^  Davenport,  Charles  B.,  "The  Personality,  Heredity  and  Work  of  Charles  Otis 
Whitman,"  American  Natwalisl,  LI,  pp.  5-30,  Jan.,  1917- 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS  349 

interested  in  knowing  that  a  given  character  is  not  inherited 
under  certain  conditions,  as  that  it  is. 

It  is  highly  desirable  that  genealogists  should  acquire  the 
habit  of  stating  the  traits  of  their  subjects  in  quantitative 
terms.  They  too  often  state  that  a  certain  amount  is  "much"; 
what  should  be  told  is  ''how  much."  Instead  of  saying  that  an 
individual  had  fairly  good  health,  tell  exactly  what  diseases 
he  had  during  his  lifetime;  instead  of  remarking  that  he  was  a 
good  mathematician,  tell  some  anecdote  or  fact  that  will  allow 
judgment  of  the  extent  of  his  ability  in  this  line.  Did  he  keep 
record  of  his  bank  balance  in  his  head  instead  of  on  paper?  Was 
he  fond  of  mathematical  puzzles?  Did  he  revel  in  statistics? 
Was  the  study  of  calculus  a  recreation  to  him?  Such  things 
probably  will  appear  trivial  to  the  genealogist,  but  to  the  eu- 
genist  they  are  sometimes  important. 

Aside  from  biology,  or  as  much  of  it  as  is  comprised  in  eu- 
genics, genealogy  may  also  serve  medicine,  jurisprudence, 
sociology,  statistics,  and  various  other  sciences  as  well  as  the 
ones  which  it  now  serves.  But  in  most  cases,  such  service  will 
have  a  eugenic  aspect.  The  alliance  between  eugenics  and  gen- 
ealogy is  so  logical  that  it  can  not  be  put  off  much  longer. 

Genealogists  may  well  ask  what  facilities  there  are  for  receiv- 
ing and  using  pedigrees  such  as  we  have  been  outlining,  if  they 
were  made  up.  All  are,  of  course,  familiar  with  the  repositories 
which  the  different  patriotic  societies,  the  National  Genealogical 
Society,  and  similar  organizations  maintain,  as  well  as  the  col- 
lections of  the  Library  of  Congress  and  other  great  public  in- 
stitutions. Anything  deposited  in  such  a  place  can  be  found  by 
investigators  who  are  actively  engaged  in  eugenic  research. 

In  addition  to  this,  there  are  certain  establishments  founded 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  analyzing  genealogies  from  a  biological  or 
statistical  point  of  view.  The  first  of  these  was  the  Galton 
Laboratory  of  the  University  of  London,  directed  by  Karl  Pear- 
son. There  are  two  such  at  work  in  the  United  States.  The 
larger  is  the  Eugenics  Record  Office  at  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long 
Island,  New  York,  directed  by  Charles  B.  Davenport.  Blank 
schedules  are  sent  to  all  applicants,  in  which  the  pedigree  of  an 


3SO  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

individual  may  be  easily  set  down,  with  reference  particularly  to 
the  traits  of  eugenic  importance.  When  desired,  the  ofhce  will 
send  duplicate  schedules,  one  of  which  may  be  retained  by  the 
applicant  for  his  own  files.  The  schedules  filed  at  the  Eugenics 
Record  Office  are  treated  as  confidential,  access  to  them  being 
given  only  to  accredited  investigators. 

The  second  institution  of  this  kind  is  the  Genealogical  Record 
Office,  founded  and  directed  by  Alexander  Graham  Bell  at 
1601  Thirty-fifth  Street  N.  W.,  Washington  D.  C.  This  devotes 
itself  solely  to  the  collection  of  data  regarding  longevity,  and 
sends  out  schedules  to  all  those  in  whose  families  there  have 
been  individuals  attaining  the  age  of  80  or  over.  It  welcomes 
correspondence  on  the  subject  from  all  who  know  of  cases  of 
long  life,  and  endeavors  to  put  the  particulars  on  record,  espe- 
cially with  reference  to  the  ancestry  and  habits  of  the  long- 
lived  individual. 

The  Eugenics  Registry  at  Battle  Creek,  Mich.,  likewise  receives 
pedigrees,  which  it  refers  to  Cold  Spring  Harbor  for  analysis. 

Persons  intelhgently  interested  in  their  ancestry  might  well 
consider  it  a  duty  to  society,  and  to  their  own  posterity,  to  send 
for  one  of  the  Eugenics  Record  Office  schedules,  fill  it  out  and 
place  it  on  file  there,  and  to  do  the  same  wdth  the  Genealogical 
Record  Office,  if  they  are  so  fortunate  as  to  come  of  a  stock 
characterized  by  longevity.  The  filling  out  of  these  schedules 
would  be  likely  to  lead  to  a  new  view  of  genealogy;  and  when  this 
point  of  vnew  is  once  gained,  the  student  will  find  it  adds  im- 
mensely to  his  interest  in  his  pursuit. 

Genealogists  are  all  familiar  with  the  charge  of  long  standing 
that  genealogy  is  a  subject  of  no  use,  a  fad  of  a  privileged  class. 
They  do  not  need  to  be  told  that  such  a  charge  is  untrue.  But 
genealogy  can  be  made  a  much  more  useful  science  than  it  now 
is,  and  it  will  be  at  the  same  time  more  interesting  to  its  follow- 
ers, if  it  is  no  longer  looked  upon  as  an  end  in  itself,  nor  solely 
as  a  minister  to  family  pride.  We  hope  to  see  it  regarded  as  a 
handmaid  of  evolution,  just  as  are  the  other  sciences;  we  hope 
to  see  it  linked  with  the  great  biological  movement  of  the  present 
day,  for  the  betterment  of  mankind. 


GENEALOGY  AND  EUGENICS  351 

So  much  for  the  science  as  a  whole.  What  can  the  individual 
do?  Nothing  better  than  to  broaden  his  outlook  so  that  he  may 
view  his  family  not  as  an  exclusive  entity,  centered  in  a  name, 
dependent  on  some  illustrious  man  or  men  of  the  past;  but  rather 
as  an  integral  part  of  the  great  fabric  of  human  life,  its  warp  and 
woof  continuous  from  the  dawn  of  creation  and  criss-crossed  at 
each  generation.  When  he  gets  this  vision,  he  will  desire  to  make 
his  family  tree  as  full  as  possible,  to  include  his  collaterals,  to 
note  every  trait  which  he  can  find  on  record,  to  preserve  the  pho- 
tographs and  measurements  of  his  o\mi  contemporaries,  and  to 
take  pleasure  in  feeling  that  the  history  of  his  family  is  a  contribu- 
tion to  human  knowledge,  as  well  as  to  the  pride  of  the  family. 

If  the  individual  genealogist  does  this,  the  science  of  genealogy 
will  become  a  useful  servant  of  the  whole  race,  and  its  influence, 
not  confined  to  a  few,  will  be  felt  by  all,  as  a  positive,  dynamic 
force  helping  them  to  lead  more  worthy  lives  in  the  short  span 
allotted  to  them,  and  helping  them  to  leave  more  worthy  pos- 
terity to  carry  on  the  names  they  bore  and  the  sacred  thread  of 
immortality,  of  which  they  were  for  a  time  the  custodians. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  EUGENIC  ASPECT  OF  SOME  SPECIFIC 
REFORMS 

Nearly  every  law  and  custom  of  a  country  has  an  influence 
direct  or  remote  on  eugenics.  The  eugenic  progress  to  be  ex- 
pected if  laws  and  customs  are  gradually  but  steadily  modified 
in  appropriate  ways,  is  vastly  greater  and  more  practicable  than 
is  any  possible  gain  which  could  be  made  at  present  through 
schemes  for  the  direct  control  of  "eugenic  marriages." 

In  this  present  chapter,  we  try  to  point  out  some  of  the  eu- 
genic aspects  of  certain  features  of  American  society.  It  must 
not  be  supposed  that  we  have  any  legislative  panaceas  to  offer, 
or  that  the  suggestions  we  make  are  necessarily  the  correct 
ones.  We  are  primarily  concerned  with  stimulating  people  to 
think  about  the  eugenic  aspects  of  their  laws  and  customs. 
Once  the  public  thinks,  numerous  changes  will  be  tried  and  the 
results  will  show  whether  the  changes  shall  be  followed  up  or 
discontinued. 

The  eugenic  point  of  view  that  we  have  here  taken  is  becoming 
rather  widespread,  although  it  is  often  not  recognized  as  eu- 
genic. Thinkers  in  all  subjects  that  concern  social  progress  are 
beginning  to  realize  that  the  test  of  whether  or  not  a  measure 
is  good  is  its  effect.  The  pragmatic  school  of  philosophy,  which 
has  been  in  vogue  in  recent  years,  has  reduced  this  attitude  to  a 
system.  It  is  an  attitude  to  be  welcomed  wherever  it  is  found, 
for  it  only  needs  the  addition  of  a  knowledge  of  biology,  to  be- 
come eugenic. 

TAXATION 

'  To  be  just,  any  form  of  taxation  should  repress  productive 
industry  as  little  as  possible,  and  should  be  of  a  kind  that  can  not 
easily  be  shifted.    In  addition  to  these  qualifications,  it  should, 

352 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    353 

if  possible,  contribute  directly  to  the  eugenic  strength  of  the 
nation  by  favoring,  or  at  least  by  not  penalizing,  useful  families. 

A  heavy  tax  on  land  values  (in  extreme,  the  single-tax)  and  a 
heavy  tax  on  bachelors  have  sometimes  been  proposed  as  likely 
to  be  eugenic  in  effect.  But  they  are  open  to  criticism.  The 
tax  on  land  values  appears  too  likely  to  be  indiscriminate  in 
working:  it  would  appear  to  favor  inferior  families  as  much 
as  superior  ones.  The  tax  on  bachelors  is  proposed  as  a  means 
of  getting  bachelors  to  marry;  but  is  this  always  desirable? 
It  depends  on  the  quality  of  the  bachelors.  Even  at  present  it 
is  our  belief  that,  on  the  whole,  the  married  men  of  the  popula- 
tion are  superior  to  the  unmarried  men.  If  the  action  of  sexual 
selection  is  improved  still  further  by  the  eugenics  campaign, 
this  difference  in  quality  will  be  increased.  ■  It  will  then  be  rather 
an  advantage  that  the  bachelors  should  remain  single,  and  a  tax 
which  would  force  them  into  marriage  for  reasons  of  economy, 
is  not  likely  to  result  in  any  eugenic  gain.  But  a  moderate  indi- 
rect tax  by  an  exemption  for  a  wife  and  each  child  after  a  gen- 
eral exemption  of  $2,000  would  be  desirable. 

The  inheritance  tax  seems  less  open  to  criticism.  Very 
large  inheritances  should  be  taxed  to  a  much  greater  degree 
than  is  at  present  attempted  in  the  United  States,  and  the 
tax  should  be  placed,  not  on  the  total  amount  of  the  inheritance, 
but  on  the  amount  received  by  each  individual  beneficiary. 
This  tends  to  prevent  the  unfair  guarantee  of  riches  to  individ- 
uals regardless  of  their  own  worth  and  efforts.  But  to  suggest, 
on  the  other  hand,  as  has  often  been  done,  that  inheritances 
should  be  confiscated  by  the  government  altogether,  shows 
a  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  value  of  a  reasonable  right  to  be- 
queath in  encouraging  larger  families  among  those  having  a 
high  standard  of  living.  It  is  not  desirable  to  penalize  the  kind 
of  strains  which  possess  directing  talent  and  constructive  ef- 
ficiency; and  they  certainly  would  be  penalized  if  a  man  felt 
that  no  matter  how  much  he  might  increase  his  fortune,  he 
could  not  leave  any  of  it  to  those  who  continued  his  stock. 

The  sum  exempted  should  not  be  large  enough  to  tempt  the 
beneficiary  to  give  up  work  and  settle  down  into  a  life  of  com- 


354  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

placent  idleness,  but  enough  to  be  of  decided  assistance  to  him 
in  bringing  up  a  family:  $50,000  might  be  a  good  maximum. 
Above  this,  the  rate  should  advance  rapidly,  and  should  be 
progressive,  not  proportional.  A  50%  tax  on  inheritances  above 
$250,000  seems  to  us  desirable,  since  large  inheritances  tend  to 
interfere  with  the  correlation  of  wealth  and  social  worth,  which 
is  so  necessary  from  a  eugenic  point  of  view  as  well  as  from  that 
of  social  justice. 

The  Federal  estate  law,  passed  in  September,  191 6,  is  a  step 
in  the  right  direction.  It  places  the  exemption  at  $50,000  net. 
The  rate,  however,  is  not  rapid  enough  in  its  rise:  e.  g.,  estates 
exceeding  $250,000  but  less  than  $450,000  are  taxed  only  4%, 
while  the  maximimi,  for  estates  above  $5,000,000,  is  only  10%. 
This,  moreover,  is  on  the  total  estate,  while  we  favor  the  plan 
that  taxes  not  the  total  amount  bequeathed  but  the  amount  in- 
herited by  each  individual.  With  the  ever  increasing  need  of 
revenue,  it  is  certain  that  Congress  will  make  a  radical  in- 
crease in  progressive  inheritance  tax  on  large  fortunes,  which 
should  be  retained  after  the  war. 

Wisconsin  and  California  have  introduced  an  interesting  in- 
novation by  providing  a  further  graded  tax  on  inheritances  in 
accordance  with  the  degree  of  consanguinity  between  the  testator 
and  the  beneficiary.  Thus  a  small  bequest  to  a  son  or  daughter 
might  be  taxed  only  1%;  a  large  bequest  to  a  trained  nurse 
or  a  spiritualistic  medium  might  be  taxed  15%.  This  is  frank 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  inheritance  is  to  be  particularly  jus- 
tified as  it  tends  to  endow  a  superior  family,  Eugenically  it  may 
be  permissible  to  make  moderate  bequests  to  brothers,  nephews 
and  nieces,  as  well  as  one's  own  children;  and  to  endow  philan- 
thropies; but  the  State  might  well  take  a  large  part  of  any  in- 
heritance which  would  otherwise  go  to  remote  heirs,  or  to  per- 
sons not  related  to  the  testator. 

At  present  there  is,  on  the  whole,  a  negative  correlation  be- 
tween size  of  family  and  income.  The  big  families  are,  in  general 
in  the  part  of  the  population  which  has  the  smallest  income, 
and  it  is  well  established  that  the  nimaber  of  children  tends  to 
decrease  as  the  income  increases  and  as  a  family  rises  in  the 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    355 

social  scale — a  fact  to  which  we  have  devoted  some  attention 
in  earlier  chapters.  If  this  condition  were  to  be  permanent,  it 
would  be  somewhat  difficult  to  suggest  a  eugenic  form  of  income 
tax.  We  believe,  however,  that  it  is  not  likely  to  be  permanent 
in  its  present  extent.  The  spread  of  birth  control  seems  likely 
to  reduce  the  negative  correlation  and  the  spread  of  eugenic 
ideas  may  possibly  convert  it  into  a  slight  positive  correlation, 
so  that  the  number  of  children  may  be  more  nearly  proportional 
to  the  means  of  the  family.  Perhaps  it  is  Utopian  to  expect  a 
positive  correlation  in  the  near  future,  yet  a  decrease  in  the 
number  of  children  born  to  the  class  of  casual  laborers  and  im- 
skilled  workers  is  pretty  certain  to  take  place  as  rapidly  as  the 
knowledge  of  methods  of  birth  control  is  extended;  and  at  pres- 
ent it  does  not  seem  that  this  extension  can  be  stopped  by  any 
of  the  agencies  that  are  opposing  it. 

If  the  size  of  a  family  becomes  more  nearly  proportional  to 
the  income,  instead  of  being  inversely  proportional  to  it  as  at 
present,  and  if  income  is  even  roughly  a  measure  of  the  value  of 
a  family  to  the  community — an  assumption  that  can  hardly 
be  denied  altogether,  however  much  one  may  qualify  it  in  in- 
dividual cases, — then  the  problem  of  taxing  family  incomes  will 
be  easier.  The  effect  of  income  differences  will  be,  on  the  whole, 
eugenic.  It  would  then  seem  desirable  to  exempt  from  taxa- 
tion all  incomes  of  married  people  below  a  certain  critical  surr, 
this  amount  being  the  point  at  which  change  in  income  may  be 
supposed  to  not  affect  size  of  family.  This  means  exemption  of 
all  incomes  under  $2,000,  an  additional  $2,000  for  a  wife  and  an 
additional  $2,000  for  each  child,  and  a  steeply-graded  advance 
above  that  amount,  as  very  large  incomes  act  to  reduce  the  size 
of  family  by  introducing  a  multiplicity  of  competing  cares  and 
interests.  There  is  also  a  eugenic  advantage  in  heavy  taxes 
on  harmful  commodities  and  unapprovable  luxuries. 

THE  "  BACK  TO  THE  FARM  "  MOVEMENT 

One  of  the  striking  accompaniments  of  the  development  of 
American  civilization,  as  of  all  other  civilizations,  is  the  growth 


3S6      ,  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

of  the  cities.  If  (following  the  practice  of  the  U.  S.  Census) 
all  places  with  2,500  or  more  population  be  classed  as  lu^ban, 
it  appears  that  36.1%  of  the  population  of  the  United  States 
was  urban  in  1890,  that  the  percentage  bad  risen  to  40.5  in  1900, 
and  that  by  1910  not  less  than  46.3%  of  the  total  population  was 
urban. 

There  are  four  components  of  this  growth  of  urban  popula- 
tion: (i)  excess  of  births  over  deaths,  (2)  immigration  from  rural 
districts,  (3)  immigration  from  other  countries,  and  (4)  the  ex- 
tension of  area  by  incorporation  of  suburbs.  It  is  not  to  be  sup- 
posed that  the  growth  of  the  cities  is  wholly  at  the  expense  of  the 
country;  J.  M.  Gillette  calculates  ^  that  29.8%  of  the  actual 
urban  gain  of  11,826,000  between  1900  and  1910  was  due  to 
migration  from  the  country,  the  remaining  70.2%  being  ac- 
counted for  by  the  other  three  causes  enumerated. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  movement  from  country  to  city  is  of 
considerable  proportions,  even  though  it  be  much  less  than  has 
sometimes  been  alleged.  This  movement  has  eugenic  importance 
because  it  is  generally  believed,  although  more  statistical  ev- 
idence is  needed,  that  families  tend  to  "run  out"  in  a  few  gen- 
erations under  city  conditions;  and  it  is  generally  agreed  that 
among  those  who  leave  the  rural  districts  to  go  to  the  cities, 
there  are  found  many  of  the  best  representatives  of  the  country 
families. 

If  superior  people  are  going  to  the  large  cities,  and  if  this  re- 
moval leads  to  a  smaller  reproductive  contribution  than  they 
would  otherwise  have  made,  then  the  growth  of  great  cities  is  an 
important  dysgenic  factor. 

This  is  the  view  taken  by  O.  F.  Cook,-  when  he  writes:  " Statis- 
tically speaking  cities  are  centers  of  population,  but  biologically 
or  eugenically  speaking  they  are  centers  of  depopulation.  They 
are  like  sink-holes  or  siguanas,  as  the  Indians  of  Guatemala  call 
the  places  where  the  streams  of  their  coimtry  drop  into  sub- 
terranean channels  and  disappear.    It  never  happens  that  cities 

>  Gillette,  John  M.,  Constructive  Rural  Sociology,  p.  89,  New  York,  1916. 
2  Cook,  O.  F.,  "Eugenics  and  Agriculture,"  Journal  of  Heredity,  VII,  pp.  249-234, 
June,  1916. 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    357 

develop  large  populations  that  go  out  and  occupy  the  surround- 
ing country.  The  movement  of  population  is  always  toward  the 
city.  The  currents  of  humanity  pass  into  the  urban  siguanas 
and  are  gone." 

"If  the  time  has  really  come  for  the  consideration  of  practical 
eugenic  measures,  here  is  a  place  to  begin,  a  subject  worthy  of 
the  most  careful  study — how  to  rearrange  our  social  and  eco- 
nomic system  so  that  more  of  the  superior  members  of  our  race 
will  stay  on  the  land  and  raise  families,  instead  of  moving  to  the 
city  and  remaining  unmarried  or  childless,  or  allowing  their 
children  to  grow  up  in  unfavorable  urban  environments  that 
mean  deterioration  and  extinction." 

"The  cities  represent  an  eliminating  agency  of  enormous 
efficiency,  a  present  condition  that  sterilizes  and  exterminates 
individuals  and  lines  of  descent  rapidly  enough  for  all  but  the 
most  sanguinary  reformer.  All  that  is  needed  for  a  practical 
solution  of  the  eugenic  problem  is  to  reverse  the  present  tendency 
for  the  better  families  to  be  drawn  into  the  city  and  facilitate  the 
drafting  of  others  for  urban  duty.  .  .  .  The  most  practical 
eugenists  of  our  age  are  the  men  who  are  solving  the  prob- 
lems of  living  in  the  country  and  thus  keeping  more  and  better 
people  under  rural  conditions  where  their  families  will  survive." 

"To  recognize  the  relation  of  eugenics  to  agriculture,"  Mr. 
Cook  concludes,  "does  not  solve  the  problems  of  our  race,  but 
it  indicates  the  basis  on  which  the  problems  need  to  be  solved, 
and  the  danger  of  wasting  too  much  time  and  effort  in  attempting 
to  salvage  the  derelict  populations  of  the  cities.  However  im- 
portant the  problems  of  urban  society  may  be,  they  do  not  have 
fundamental  significance  from  the  standpoint  of  eugenics,  be- 
cause urban  populations  are  essentially  transient.  The  city 
performs  the  function  of  elimination,  while  agriculture  represents 
the  constructive  eugenic  condition  which  must  be  maintained 
and  improved  if  the  development  of  the  race  is  to  continue." 

On  the  other  hand,  city  life  does  select  those  who  are  adapted 
to  it."  It  is  said  to  favor  the  Mediterranean  race  in  competition 
with  the  Nordic,  so  that  mixed  city  populations  tend  to  become 
more  brunette,  the  Nordic  strains  dying  out.     How  well  this 


358  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

claim  has  been  established  statistically  is  open  to  question;  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Jewish  race  is  an  example  of  ur- 
ban selection.  It  has  withstood  centuries  of  city  life,  usually 
under  the  most  severe  conditions,  in  ghettoes,  and  has  survived 
and  maintained  a  high  average  of  mentality. 

Until  recently  it  has  been  impossible,  because  of  the  defective 
registration  of  vital  statistics  in  the  United  States,  to  get  figures 
which  show  the  extent  of  the  problem  of  urban  sterilization. 
But  Dr.  Gillette  has  obtained  evidence  along  several  indirect 
lines,  and  is  convinced  that  his  figures  are  not  far  from  the 
truth.  ^  They  show  the  diflference  to  be  very  large  and  its  eugenic 
significance  of  corresponding  importance. 

"When  it  is  noted,"  Dr.  Gillette  says,  "that  the  rural  rate 
is  almost  twice  the  urban  rate  for  the  nation  as  a  whole,  that  in 
only  one  division  does  the  latter  exceed  the  former,  and  that  in 
some  divisions  the  rural  rate  is  three  times  the  urban  rate,  it  can 
scarcely  be  doubted  that  the  factor  of  urbanization  is  the  most 
important  cause  of  lowered  increase  rates.  Urban  birth-rates 
are  lower  than  rural  birth-rates,  and  its  death-rates  are  higher 
than  those  of  the  latter." 

Considering  the  United  States  in  nine  geographical,  divisions, 
Dr.  Gillette  secured  the  following  results: 

Rate  of  Net  Annual  Increase 

Division                                                  Rural  Urban  Average 

New  England 5.0  7.3                6.8 

Middle  Atlantic 10.7  9.6  10.4 

East  North  Central 12.4  10.8  11. 6 

West  North  Central 18.  i  10.  i  15.8 

South  Atlantic 18.9  6.00  16.0 

East  South  Central 19.7  7.4  17.8 

West  South  Central 23 . 9  10 . 2  21.6 

Mountain 21.1  10.5  17.6 

Pacific 12.6  6.6                9.8 

Average 16.9  8.8  13-65 

*  Gillette,  John  M.,  "A  Study  in  Social  Dynamics:  A  Statistical  Determination 
of  the  Rate  of  Natural  Increase  and  of  the  Factors  Accounting  for  the  Increase  of 
Population  in  the  United  States,"  Quarterly  Publications  of  the  American  Statistical 
Association,  n.  s.  116,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  345-380,  December,  1916. 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    359 

Even  though  fuller  returns  might  show  these  calculations  to 
be  inaccurate,  Dr.  Gillette  points  out,  they  are  all  compiled  on 
the  same  basis,  and  therefore  can  be  fairly  compared,  since  any 
unforeseen  cause  of  increase  or  decrease  would  affect  all  alike. 

It  is  difficult  to  compare  the  various  divisions  directly,  be- 
cause the  racial  composition  of  the  population  of  each  one  is 
different.  But  the  difference  in  rates  is  marked.  The  West 
South  Central  states  would  almost  double  their  population  in 
four  decades,  by  natural  increase  alone,  while  New  England 
would  require  200  years  to  do  so. 

Dr.  Gillette  tried,  by  elaborate  computations,  to  eliminate 
the  effect  of  immigration  and  emigration  in  each  division,  in 
order  to  find  out  the  standing  of  the  old  American  stock.  His 
conclusions  confirm  the  beliefs  of  the  most  pessimistic.  "Only 
three  divisions,  all  Western,  add  to  their  population  by  means  of 
an  actual  excess  of  income  over  outgo  of  native-bom  Americans," 
he  reports.  Even  should  this  view  turn  out  to  be  exaggerated, 
it  is  certain  that  the  population  of  the  United  States  is  at  present 
increasing  largely  because  of  immigration  and  the  high  fecundity 
of  immigrant  women,  and  that  as  far  as  its  own  older  stock  is 
concerned,  it  has  ceased  to  increase. 

To  state  that  this  is  due  largely  to  the  fact  that  country 
people  are  moving  to  the  city  is  by  no  means  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem, in  terms  of  eugenics.  It  merely  shows  the  exact  nature  of 
the  problem  to  be  solved.    This  could  be  attacked  at  two  points. 

1.  Attempts  might  be  made  to  keep  the  rural  population  on 
the  farms,  and  to  encourage  a  movement  from  the  cities  back 
to  the  country.  Measures  to  make  rural  life  more  attractive 
and  remunerative  and  thus  to  keep  the  more  energetic  and 
capable  young  people  on  the  farm,  have  great  eugenic  impor- 
tance, from  this  point  of  view. 

2.  The  growth  of  cities  might  be  accepted  as  a  necessary 
evil,  an  unavoidable  feature  of  industrial  civilization,  and 
direct  attempts  might  be  made,  through  eugenic  propaganda, 
to  secure  a  higher  birth-rate  among  the  superior  parts  of  the  city 
population. 

The  second  method  seems  in  many  ways  the  more  practicable. 


36o  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

On  the  other  hand,  the  first  method  is  in  many  ways  more  ideal, 
particularly  because  it  would  not  only  cause  more  children  to  be 
bom,  but  furnish  these  children  with  a  suitable  environment 
after  they  were  bom,  which  the  city  can  not  do.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  city  ofifers  the  better  environment  for  the  especially 
gifted  who  require  a  specialized  training  and  later  the  field  for 
its  use  in  most  cases. 

In  practice,  the  problem  will  undoubtedly  have  to  be  attacked 
by  eugenists  on  both  sides.  Dr.  Gillette's  statistics,  showing 
the  appalling  need,  should  prove  a  stimulus  to  eugenic  effort. 

DEMOCRACY 

By  democracy  we  understand  a  government  which  is  re- 
sponsive to  the  will  of  a  majority  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion, as  opposed  to  an  oligarchy  where  the  sole  power  is  in  the 
hands  of  a  small  minority  of  the  entire  population,  who  are  able 
to  impose  their  will  on  the  rest  of  the  nation.  In  discussing 
immigration,  we  have  pointed  out  that  it  is  of  great  importance 
that  the  road  for  promotion  of  merit  should  always  be  open, 
and  that  the  road  for  demotion  of  incompetence  should  likewise 
be  open.  These  conditions  are  probably  favored  more  by  a 
democracy  than  by  any  other  form  of  government,  and  to  that 
extent  democracy  is  distinctly  advantageous  to  eugenics. 

Yet  this  eugenic  effect  is  not  without  a  dysgenic  after-effect. 
The  very  fact  that  recognition  is  attainable  by  all,  means  that 
democracy  leads  to  social  ambition;  and  social  ambition  leads 
to  smaller  families.  This  influence  is  manifested  mainly  in  the 
women,  whose  desire  to  climb  the  social  ladder  is  increased  by 
the  ease  of  ascent  which  is  due  to  lack  of  rigid  social  barriers. 
But  while  ascent  is  possible  for  almost  anyone,  it  is  naturally 
favored  by  freedom  from  handicaps,  such  as  a  large  family  of 
children.  In  the  "successful"  business  and  professional  classes, 
therefore,  there  is  an  inducement  to  the  wife  to  limit  the 
number  of  her  offspring,  in  order  that  she  may  have  more 
time  to  devote  to  social  "duties."  In  a  country  like  Germany, 
with  more  or  less  stratified  social  classes,  this  factor  in  the  dif- 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    361 

ferential  birth-rate  is  probably  less  operative.  The  solution  in 
America  is  not  to  create  an  impermeable  social  stratification, 
but  to  create  a  public  sentiment  which  will  honor  women  more 
for  motherhood  than  for  eminence  in  the  largely  futile  activities 
of  polite  society. 

In  quite  another  way,  too  great  democratization  of  a  coimtry 
is  dangerous.  The  tendency  is  to  ask,  in  regard  to  any  measure, 
"What  do  the  people  want?  "  while  the  question  should  be 
"What  ought  the  people  to  want?"  The  vox  populi  may  and 
often  does  want  something  that  is  in  the  long  run  quite  detri- 
.mental  to  the  welfare  of  the  state.  The  ultimate  test  of  a  state 
is  whether  it  is  strong  enough  to  survive,  and  a  measure  that  all 
the  people,  or  a  voting  majority  of  them  (which  is  the  significant 
thing  in  a  democracy),  want,  may  be  such  as  to  handicap  the 
state  severely. 

In  general,  experts  are  better  able  to  decide  what  measures 
will  be  desirable  in  the  long  run,  than  are  voters  of  the  general 
population,  most  of  whom  know  little  about  the  real  merits 
of  many  of  the  most  important  projects.  Yet  democracies  have 
a  tendency  to  scorn  the  advice  of  experts,  most  of  the  voters  feel- 
ing that  they  are  as  good  as  any  one  else,  and  that  their  opinion 
is  entitled  to  as  much  weight  as  that  of  the  expert.  This  attitude 
naturally  makes  it  difficult  to  secure  the  passage  of  measures 
which  are  eugenic  or  otherwise  beneficial  in  character,  since 
they  often  run  counter  to  popular  prejudices. 

The  initiative  by  small  petitions,  and  the  referendum  as  a 
frequent  resort,  are  dangerous.  They  are  of  great  value  if  so 
qualified  as  to  be  used  only  in  real  emergencies,  as  where  a 
clique  has  got  control  of  the  govenmient  and  is  running  it  for 
its  self-interest,  but  as  a  regularly  and  frequently  functioning 
institution  they  are  unlikely  to  result  in  wise  statesmanship. 

The  wise  democracy  is  that  which  recognizes  that  officials 
may  be  effectively  chosen  by  vote,  only  for  legislative  offices; 
and  which  recognizes  that  for  executive  offices  the  choice  must  be 
definitely  selective,  that  is,  a  choice  of  those  wto  by  merit  are 
best  fitted  to  fill  the  positions.  Appointment  in  executive  officers 
is  not  offensive  when,  as  the  name  indicates,  it  is  tnJy  the  best 


362  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

who  govern.  All  methods  of  choice  by  properly  judged  com- 
petition or  examination  with  a  free  chance  to  all,  are,  in  principle, 
selective  yet  democratic  in  the  best  sense,  that  of  "equality  of 
opportunity."  When  the  governing  few  are  not  the  best  fitted 
for  the  work,  a  so-called  aristocracy  is  of  course  not  an  aristoc- 
racy (government  by  the  best)  at  all,  but  merely  an  oligarchy. 
When  officers  chosen  by  vote  are  not  well  fitted  then  such  a 
government  is  not  "for  the  people." 

Good  government  is  then  an  aristo-democracy.  In  it  the 
final  control  rests  in  a  democratically  chosen  legislature  working 
with  a  legislative  commission  of  experts,  but  all  executive  and 
judicial  functions  are  performed  by  those  best  qualified  on  the 
basis  of  executive  or  judicial  ability,  not  vote-getting  or  speech- 
making  ability.  All,  however,  are  eligible  for  such  positions 
provided  they  can  show  genuine  qualifications. 

SOCIALISM 

It  is  difficult  to  define  socialism  in  terms  that  will  make  a  dis- 
cussion practicable.  The  socialist  movement  is  one  thing,  the 
socialist  political  program  is  another.  But  though  the  idea  of 
socialism  has  as  many  different  forms  as  an  amoeba,  there  is 
always  a  nucleus  that  remains  constant, — the  desire  for  what  is 
conceived  to  be  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  wealth.  The 
laborer  should  get  the  value  which  his  labor  produces,  it  is  held, 
subject  only  to  subtraction  of  such  a  part  as  is  necessary  to  meet 
the  costs  of  maintenance;  and  in  order  that  as  little  as  possible 
need  be  subtracted  for  that  purpose,  the  socialists  agree  in  de- 
manding a  considerable  extension  of  the  functions  of  govern- 
ment: collective  owmership  of  railways,  mines,  the  tools  of  pro- 
duction. The  ideal  socialistic  state  would  be  so  organized,  along 
these  lines,  that  the  producer  would  get  as  much  as  possible 
of  what  he  produces,  the  non-producer  nothing. 

This  principle  of  socialism  is  invariably  accompanied  by 
numerous  associated  principles,  and  it  is  on  these  associated 
principles,  not  on  the  fundamental  principle,  that  eugenists 
and  socialists  come  into  conflict.     Equalitarianism,  in  partic- 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    363 

ular,  is  so  great  a  part  of  current  socialist  thought  that  it 
is  doubtful  whether  the  socialist  movement  as  such  can  exist 
without  it.  And  this  equalitarianism  is  usually  interpreted 
not  only  to  demand  equality  of  opportunity,  but  is  based  on  a 
belief  in  substantial  equality  of  native  ability,  where  opportu- 
nity is  equal. 

Any  one  who  has  read  the  preceding  chapters  will  have  no 
doubt  that  such  a  belief  is  incompatible  with  an  understanding 
of  the  principles  of  biology.  How,  then,  has  it  come  to  be  such 
an  integral  part  of  socialism? 

Apparently  it  is  because  the  socialist  movement  is,  on  the 
whole,  made  up  of  those  who  are  economically  unsatisfied  and 
discontented.  Some  of  the  intellectual  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment are  far  from  inferior,  but  they  too  often  find  it  necessary 
to  share  the  views  of  their  following,  in  order  to  retain  this  fol- 
lowing. A  group  which  feels  itself  inferior  will  naturally  fall 
into  an  attitude  of  equalitarianism,  whereas  a  group  which  felt 
itself  superior  to  the  rest  of  society  would  not  be  likely  to. 

Before  criticising  the  socialistic  attitude  in  detail,  we  will  con- 
sider some  of  the  criticisms  which  some  socialists  make  of  eu- 
genics. 

I.  It  is  charged  that  eugenics  infringes  on  the  freedom  of  the 
individual.  This  charge  (really  that  of  the  individualists  more 
than  of  socialists  strictly  speaking)  is  based  mainly  on  a  mis- 
conception of  what  eugenics  attempts  to  do.  Coercive  measures 
have  little  place  in  modern  eugenics,  despite  the  gibes  of  the 
comic  press.  We  propose  little  or  no  interference  with  the 
freedom  of  the  normal  individual  to  follow  his  own  inclina- 
tions in  regard  to  marriage  or  parenthood;  we  regard  indirect 
measures  and  the  education  of  public  opinion  as  the  main 
practicable  methods  of  procedure.  Such  coercive  measures  as 
we  indorse  are  limited  to  grossly  defective  individuals,  to  whom 
the  doctrine  of  personal  liberty  can  not  be  applied  without  stul- 
tifying it.  ' 

It  is  indeed  unfortunate  that  there  are  a  few  sincere  advocates 
of  eugenics  who  adhered  to  the  idea  of  a  wholesale  surgical  cam- 
paign.   A  few  reformers  have  told  the  public  for  several  years  of 


364  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

the  desirability  of  sterilizing  the  supposed  10,000,000  defectives 
at  the  bottom  of  the  American  population.  Lately  one  cam- 
paigner has  raised  this  figure  to  15,000,000.  Such  fantastic 
proposals  are  properly  resented  by  socialists  and  nearly  every 
one  else,  but  they  are  invariably  associated  in  the  pubhc 
mind  with  the  conception  of  eugenics,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  99  out  of  100  eugenists  would  repudiate  them.  The 
authors  can  speak  only  for  themselves,  in  declaring  that  eu- 
genics will  not  be  promoted  by  coercive  means  except  in  a 
limited  class  of  pathological  cases;  but  they  are  confident  that 
other  geneticists,  with  a  very  few  exceptions,  hold  the  same  atti- 
tude. There  is  no  danger  that  this  surgical  campaign  will 
ever  attain  formidable  proportions,  and  the  socialist,  we  believe, 
may  rest  assured  that  the  progress  of  eugenics  is  not  likely  to 
infringe  unwarrantably  on  the  principle  of  individual  freedom, 
either  by  sterilization  or  by  coercive  mating. 

2.  Eugenists  are  further  charged  with  ignoring  or  paying  too 
little  attention  to  the  influence  of  the  environment  in  social  re- 
form. This  charge  is  sometimes  well  founded,  but  it  is  not  an 
inherent  defect  in  the  eugenics  program.  The  eugenist  only 
asks  that  both  factors  be  taken  into  account,  whereas  in  the 
past  the  factor  of  heredity  has  been  too  often  ignored.  In  the 
last  chapter  of  this  book  we  make  an  effort  to  balance  the  two 
sides. 

3.  Again,  it  is  alleged  that  eugenics  proposes  to  substitute  an 
aristocracy  for  a  democracy.  We  do  think  that  those  who  have 
superior  ability  should  be  given  the  greatest  responsibilities  in 
government.  If  aristocracy  means  a  government  by  the  people 
who  are  best  qualified  to  govern,  then  eugenics  has  most  to 
hope  from  an  aristo-democratic  system.  But  admission  to  office 
should  always  be  open  to  anyone  who  shows  the  best  ability;  and 
the  search  for  such  ability  must  be  much  more  thorough  in.  the 
future  than  it  has  been  in  the  past. 

4.  Eugenists  are  charged  with  hindering  social  progress  by 
endeavoring  to  keep  woman  in  the  subordinate  position  of  a 
domestic  animal,  by  opposing  the  movement  for  her  emancipa- 
tion, by  limiting  her  activity  to  child-bearing  and  refusing  to 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    365 

recognize  that  she  is  in  every  way  fitted  to  take  an  equal  part 
with  man  in  the  world's  work.  This  objection  we  have  answered 
elsewhere,  particularly  in  our  discussion  of  feminism.  We  recog- 
nize the  general  equality  of  the  two  sexes,  but  demand  a  differ- 
entiation of  function  which  will  correspond  to  biological  sex- 
specialization.  We  can  not  yield  in  our  belief  that  woman's 
greatest  function  is  motherhood,  but  recognition  of  this  should 
increase,  not  diminish,  the  strength  of  her  position  in  the 
state. 

5.  Eugenists  are  charged  with  ignoring  the  fact  of  economic 
determinism,  the  fact  that  a  man's  acts  are  governed  by  eco- 
nomic conditions.  To  debate  this  question  would  be  tedious 
and  unprofitable.  While  we  concede  the  important  role  of 
economic  determinism,  we  can  not  help  feeling  that  its  impor- 
tance in  the  eyes  of  socialists  is  somewhat  factitious.  In  the 
first  place,  it  is  obvious  that  there  are  differences  in  the  achieve- 
ments of  fellow  men.  These  socialists,  having  refused  to  accept 
the  great  weight  of  germinal  differences  in  accounting  for  the 
main  differences  in  achievement,  have  no  alternative  but  to 
fall  back  on  the  theory  of  economic  determinism.  Further, 
socialism  is  essentially  a  reform  movement;  and  if  one  expects 
to  get  aid  for  such  a  movement,  it  is  essential  that  one  represent 
the  consequences  as  highly  important.  The  doctrine  of  economic 
determinism  of  course  furnishes  ground  for  glowing  accounts  of 
the  changes  that  could  be  made  by  economic  reform,  and  there- 
fore fits  in  well  with  the  needs  of  the  socialist  propagandists. 
When  the  failure  of  many  nations  to  make  any  use  of  their  great 
resources  in  coal  and  water  power  is  remembered;  when  the  fact 
is  recalled  that  many  of  the  ablest  socialist  leaders  have  been 
the  sons  of  well-to-do  intellectuals  who  were  never  pinched  by 
poverty;  it  must  be  believed  that  the  importance  of  economic 
determinism  in  the  socialist  mind  is  caused  more  by  its  value  for 
his  propaganda  purposes  than  a  weighing  of  the  evidence. 

Such  are,  we  believe,  the  chief  grounds  on  which  socialists 
criticise  the  eugenics  movement.  All  of  these  criticisms  should 
be  stimulating,  should  lead  eugenists  to  avoid  mistakes  in 
program  or  procedure.     But  none  of  them,  we  believe,  is  a 


366  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

serious  objection  to  anything  which  the  great  body  of  eugenists 
proposes  to  do. 

What  is  to  be  said  on  the  other  side?  What  faults  does  the 
eugenist  find  with  the  socialist  movement? 

For  the  central  principle,  the  more  equitable  distribution  of 
wealth,  no  discussion  is  necessary.  Most  students  of  eugenics 
would  probably  assent  to  its  general  desirability,  although  there 
is  much  room  for  discussion  as  to  what  constitutes  a  really 
equitable  division  of  wealth.  In  sound  socialist  theory,  it  is  to 
be  distributed  according  to  a  man's  value  to  society;  but  the 
determination  of  this  value  is  usually  made  impossible,  in 
socialist  practice,  by  the  intrusion  of  the  metaphysical  and  un- 
tenable dogma  of  equalitarianism. 

If  one  man  is  by  nature  as  capable  as  another,  and  equality 
of  opportunity  ^  can  be  secured  for  all,  it  must  follow  that  one 
man  will  be  worth  just  as  much  as  another;  hence  the  equitable 
distribution  of  wealth  would  be  an  equal  distribution  of  wealth, 
a  proposal  which  some  socialists  have  made.  Most  of  the  living 
leaders  of  the  socialist  movement  certainly  recognize  its  fallacy, 
but  it  seems  so  far  to  have  been  found  necessary  to  lean  very 
far  in  this  direction  for  the  maintenance  of  socialism  as  a  move- 
ment of  class  protest. 

Now  this  idea  of  the  equality  of  human  beings  is,  in  every 
respect  that  can  be  tested,  absolutely  false,  and  any  movement 
which  depends  on  it  will  either  be  wrecked  or,  if  successful,  will 
wreck  the  state  which  it  tries  to  operate.  It  will  mean  the 
penalization  of  real  worth  and  the  endowment  of  inferiority 
and  incompetence.  Eugenists  can  feel  no  sympathy  for  a  doc- 
trine which  is  so  completely  at  variance  with  the  facts  of  human 
nature. 

But  if  it  is  admitted  that  men  differ  widely,  and  always  must 
differ,  in  ability  and  worth,  then  eugenics  can  be  in  accord  with 
the  socialistic  desire  for  distribution  of  wealth  according  to 

^  The  popular  demand  for  "equality  of  opportunity"  is,  if  taken  literally,  absurd, 
in  the  light  of  the  provable  inequality  of  abilities.  What  is  wanted  is  more  correctly 
defined  as  an  equal  consideration  of  all  with  an  appropriate  opportunity  for  each 
based  on  his  demonstrated  capacities. 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    367 

merit,  for  this  will  make  it  possible  to  favor  and  help  perpetu- 
ate the  valuable  strains  in  the  community  and  to  discourage 
the  inferior  strains.  T.  N.  Carver  sums  up  the  argument  ^ 
concisely : 

"Distribution  according  to  worth,  usefulness  or  service  is  the 
system  which  would  most  facilitate  the  progress  of  human 
adaptation.  It  would,  in  the  first  place,  stimulate  each  individ- 
ual by  an  appeal  to  his  own  self-interest,  to  make  himself  as 
useful  as  possible  to  the  community.  In  the  second  place,  it 
would  leave  him  perfectly  free  to  labor  in  the  service  of  the 
community  for  altruistic  reasons,  if  there  was  any  altruism  in 
his  nature.  In  the  third  place  it  would  exercise  a  beneficial 
selective  influence  upon  the  stock  or  race,  because  the  useful 
members  would  survive  and  perpetuate  their  kind  and  the  use- 
less and  criminal  members  would  be  exterminated." 

In  so  far  as  socialists  rid  themselves  of  their  sentimental  and 
Utopian  equalitarianism,  the  eugenist  will  join  them  willingly 
in  a  demand  that  the  distribution  of  wealth  be  made  to  depend 
as  far  as  feasible  on  the  value  of  the  individual  to  society.^ 
As  to  the  means  by  which  this  distribution  can  be  made,  there 
will  of  course  be  differences  of  opinion,  to  discuss  which  would 
be  outside  the  province  of  this  volume.  Fundamentally, 
eugenics  is  anti-individualistic  and  in  so  far  a  socialistic  move- 
ment, since  it  seeks  a  social  end  involving  some  degree  of  in- 
dividual subordination,  and  this  fact  would  be  more  frequently 
recognized  if  the  movement  which  claims  the  name  of  socialist 
did  not  so  often  allow  the  wish  to  believe  that  a  man's  environ- 

*  Essays  in  Social  Justice.  By  Thomas  Nixon  Carver,  Harvard  University  Press, 
191S.  PP-  i68-i6g. 

^  Answering  the  question  "How  Much  is  a  Man  Worth?"  Professor  Carver  states 
the  following  axioms: 

"The  value  of  a  man  equals  his  production  minus  his  consumption. 

"His  economic  success  equals  his  acquisition  minus  his  consumption. 

"When  his  acquisition  equals  his  production  then  his  economic  success  equals 
his  value. 

"It  is  the  duty  of  the  state  to  make  each  man's  acquisition  equal  his  production. 
That  is  justice." 

Of  course,  "production"  is  here  used  in  a  broad  sense,  to  mean  the  real  social 
value  of  the  services  rendered,  and  not  merely  the  present  exchange  value  of  the 
services,  or  the  goods  produced. 


368  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

mental  change  could  eliminate  natural  inequalities  to  warp  its 
attitude. 

CHILD  LABOR 

It  is  often  alleged  that  the  abolition  of  child  labor  would  be 
a  great  eugenic  accomplishment;  but  as  is  the  case  with  nearly 
all  such  proposals,  the  actual  results  are  both  complex  and  far- 
reaching. 

The  selective  effects  of  child  labor  obviously  operate  directly 
on  two  generations:  (i)  the  parental  generation  and  (2)  the 
filial  generation,  the  children  who  are  at  work.  The  re- 
sults of  these  two  forms  of  selection  must  be  considered 
separately. 

I.  On  the  parental  generation.  The  children  who  labor  mostly 
come  from  poor  families,  where  every  child  up  to  the  age  of 
economic  productivity  is  an  economic  burden.  If  the  children 
go  to  work  at  an  early  age,  the  parents  can  afford  to  have  more 
children  and  probably  will,  since  the  children  soon  become  to 
some  extent  an  asset  rather  than  a  liability.  Child  labor  thus 
leads  to  a  higher  birth-rate  of  this  class,  abolition  of  child  labor 
would  lead  to  a  lower  birth-rate,  since  the  parents  could  no 
longer  afford  to  have  so  many  children. 

Karl  Pearson  has  found  reason  to  believe  that  this  result  can 
be  statistically  traced  in  the  birth-rate  of  English  working 
people, — that  a  considerable  decline  in  their  fecundity,  due  to 
voluntary  restriction,  began  after  the  passage  of  each  of  the  laws 
which  restricted  child  labor  and  made  children  an  expense  from 
which  no  return  could  be  expected. 

If  the  abolition  of  child  labor  leads  to  the  production  of  fewer 
children  in  a  certain  section  of  the  population  the  value  of  the 
result  to  society,  in  this  phase,  will  depend  on  whether  or  not 
society  wants  that  strain  proportionately  increased.  If  it  is  an 
inferior  stock,  this  one  efifect  of  the  abolition  of  child  labor  would 
be  eugenic. 

Comparing  the  families  whose  children  work  with  those  whose 
children  do  not,  one  is  likely  to  conclude  that  the  former  are  on 
the  average  inferior  to  the  latter.    If  so,  child  labor  is  in  this  one 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    369 

particular  aspect  dysgenic,  and  its  abolition,  leading  to  a  lower 
birth-rate  in  this  class  of  the  population,  will  be  an  advantage. 

2.  On  the  filial  generation.  The  obvious  result  of  the  abohtion 
of  child  labor  will  be,  as  is  often  and  graphically  told,  to  give 
children  a  better  chance  of  development.  If  they  are  of  superior 
stock,  and  will  be  better  parents  for  not  having  worked  as  chil- 
dren (a  proviso  which  requires  substantiation)  the  abolition  of 
their  labor  will  be  of  direct  eugenic  benefit.  Otherwise,  its  re- 
sults will  be  at  most  indirect;  or,  possibly,  dysgenic,  if  they  are 
of  undesirable  stock,  and  are  enabled  to  survive  in  greater  num- 
bers and  reproduce.  In  necessarily  passing  over  the  social  and 
economic  aspects  of  the  question,  we  do  not  wish  it  thought  that 
we  advocate  child  labor  for  the  purpose  of  killing  off  an  unde- 
sirable stock  prematurely.  We  are  only  concerned  in  pointing 
out  that  the  effects  of  child  labor  are  many  and  various. 

The  effect  of  its  abolition  within  a  single  family  further  de- 
pends on  whether  the  children  who  go  to  work  are  superior  to 
those  who  stay  at  home.  If  the  strongest  and  most  intelligent 
children  are  sent  to  work  and  crippled  or  killed  prematurely, 
while  the  weaklings  and  feeble-minded  are  kept  at  home,  brought 
up  on  the  earnings  of  the  strong,  and  enabled  to  reach  maturity 
and  reproduce,  then  this  aspect  of  child  labor  is  distinctly  dys- 
genic. 

The  desirability  of  prohibiting  child  labor  is  generally  con- 
ceded on  euthenic  grounds,  and  we  conclude  that  its  results 
will  on  the  whole  be  eugenic  as  well,  but  that  they  are  more 
complex  than  is  usually  recognized. 

COMPULSORY  EDUCATION 

Whether  one  favors  or  rejects  compulsory  education  will 
probably  be  determined  by  other  arguments  than  those  derived 
from  eugenics;  nevertheless  there  are  eugenic  aspects  of  the 
problem  which  deserve  to  be  recognized. 

One  of  the  effects  of  compulsory  education  is  similar  to  that 
which  follows  the  abolition  of  child  labor — namely,  that  the 
child  is  made  a  source  of  expense,  not  of  revenue,  to  the  parent. 


370  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Not  only  is  the  child  unable  to  work,  while  at  school,  but  to 
send  him  to  school  involves  in  practice  dressing  him  better 
than  would  be  necessary  if  he  stayed  at  home.  While  it  might 
fit  the  child  to  work  more  gainfully  in  later  years,  yet  the  years 
of  gain  are  so  long  postponed  that  the  parent  can  expect  to 
share  in  but  little  of  it. 

These  arguments  would  not  affect  the  well-to-do  parent,  or 
the  high-minded  parent  who  was  willing  or  able  to  make  some 
sacrifice  in  order  that  his  children  might  get  as  good  a  start  as 
possible.  But  they  may  well  affect  the  opposite  type  of  parent, 
with  low  efficiency  and  low  ideals.^  This  type  of  parent,  finding 
that  the  system  of  compulsory  education  made  children  a 
liability,  not  an  immediate  asset,  would  thereby  be  led  to  reduce 
the  size  of  his  family,  just  as  he  seems  to  have  done  when  child 
labor  was  prohibited  in  England  and  children  ceased  to  be  a 
source  of  revenue.  Compulsory  education  has  here,  then,  a 
eugenic  effect,  in  discouraging  the  reproduction  of  parents  with 
the  least  efficiency  and  altruism. 

If  this  belief  be  well  founded,  it  is  likely  that  any  measure 
tending  to  decrease  the  cost  of  schooling  for  children  will  tend 
to  diminish  this  effect  of  compulsory  education.  Such  measures 
as  the  free  distribution  of  text-books,  the  provision  of  free  lunches 
at  noon,  or  the  extension  to  school  children  of  a  reduced  car- 
fare, make  it  easier  for  the  selfish  or  inefficient  parent  to  raise 
children;  they  cost  him  less  and  therefore  he  may  tend  to  have 
more  of  them.  If  such  were  the  case,  the  measures  referred 
to,  despite  the  euthenic  considerations,  must  be  classified  as 
dysgenic. 

In  another  and  quite  different  way,  compulsory  education  is 
of  service  to  eugenics.  The  educational  system  should  be  a 
sieve,  through  which  all  the  children  of  the  country  are  passed, 
— or  more  accurately,  a  series  of  sieves,  which  will  enable  the 
teacher  to  determine  just  how  far  it  is  profitable  to  educate  each 
child  so  that  he  may  lead  a  life  of  the  greatest  possible  usefulness 
to  the  state  and  happiness  to  himself.    Obviously  such  a  func- 

^  Kornhauser,  A.  W.,  "Economic  Standing  of  Parents  and  the  Intelligence  of 
their  Children,"  Jour,  of  Educ.  Psychology,  Vol.  IX.,  pp.  159-164,  March,  1918. 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    371 

tion  would  be  inadequately  discharged,  if  the  sieve  failed  to  get 
all  the  available  material;  and  compulsory  education  makes  it 
certain  that  none  will  be  omitted. 

It  is  very  desirable  that  no  child  escape  inspection,  because 
of  the  importance  of  discovering  every  individual  of  exceptional 
abiUty  or  inability.  Since  the  public  educational  system  has  not 
yet  risen  to  the  need  of  this  systematic  mental  diagnosis,  pri- 
vate philanthropy  should  for  the  present  be  alert  to  get  appropri- 
ate treatment  for  the  unusually  promising  individual.  In  Pitts- 
burgh, a  committee  of  the  Civic  Club  is  seeking  youths  of  this 
type,,  who  might  be  obliged  to  leave  school  prematurely  for 
economic  reasons,  and  is  aiding  them  to  appropriate  opportuni- 
ties. Such  discriminating  selection  will  probably  become  much 
more  widespread  and  we  may  hope  a  recognized  function  of 
the  schools,  owing  to  the  great  public  demonstration  of  psy- 
chometry  now  being  conducted  at  the  cantonments  for  the 
mental  classification  of  recruits.  Compulsory  education  is  nec- 
essary for  this  selection. 

We  conclude  that  compulsory  education,  as  such,  is  not  only 
of  service  to  eugenics  through  the  selection  it  makes  possible, 
but  may  serve  in  a  more  unsuspected  way  by  cutting  down  the 
birth-rate  of  inferior  families. 

VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  AND  TRAINING 

In  arguments  for  vocational  guidance  and  education  of  youth, 
one  does  not  often  hear  eugenics  mentioned;  yet  these  meas- 
ures, if  effectively  carried  out,  seem  likely  to  be  of  real  eugenic 
value. 

The  need  for  as  perfect  a  correlation  as  possible  between  in- 
come and  eugenic  worth,  has  been  already  emphasized.  It  is 
evident  that  if  a  man  gets  into  the  wrong  job,  a  job  for  which  he 
is  not  well  fitted,  he  may  make  a  very  poor  showing  in  life,  while 
if  properly  trained  in  something  suited  to  him,  his  income  would 
have  been  considerably  greater.  It  will  be  a  distinct  advantage 
to  have  superior  young  people  get  established  earlier,  and  this 
can  be  done  if  they  are  directly  taught  efficiency  in  what  they 


372  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

can  do  best,  the  boys  being  fitted  for  gainful  occupations,  and 
the  girls  for  wifehood  and  motherhood  in  addition. 

As  to  the  details  of  vocational  guidance,  the  eugenist  is 
perhaps  not  entitled  to  give  much  advice;  yet  it  seems  likely 
that  a  more  thorough  study  of  the  inheritance  of  ability  would 
be  of  value  to  the  educator.  It  was  pointed  out  in  Chapter  IV 
that  inheritance  often  seems  to  be  highly  specialized, — a  fact 
which  leads  to  the  inference  that  the  son  might  often  do  best 
in  his  father's  calling  or  vocation,  especially  if  his  mother  comes 
from  a  family  marked  by  similar  capacities.  It  is  difficult  to 
say  how  far  the  occupation  of  the  son  is,  in  modern  conditions, 
determined  by  heredity  and  how  far  it  is  the  result  of  chance, 
or  the  need  of  taking  the  first  job  open,  the  lack  of  any  special 
qualifications  for  any  particular  work,  or  some  similar  environ- 
mental influence.  Miss  Perrin  investigated  1,550  pairs  of  fathers 
and  sons  in  the  English  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  and  an 
equal  number  in  the  English  Who^s  Who.  "It  seems  clear," 
she  concluded,  "that  whether  we  take  the  present  or  the  long 
period  of  the  past  embraced  by  the  Dictionary,  the  environ- 
mental influences  which  induce  a  man  in  this  country  to  follow 
his.  father's  occupation  must  have  remained  very  steady." 
She  found  the  coefficient  of  contingency  ^  between  occupation  of 
father  and  occupation  of  son  in  Who^s  Who  to  be  .75  and  in  the 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography  .76.  For  the  inheritance 
of  physical  and  mental  characters,  in  general,  the  coefficient 
would  be  about  .5.  She  thinks,  "therefore,  we  may  say  that  in 
the  choice  of  a  profession  inherited  taste  counts  for  about  -/a 
and  environmental  conditions  for  about  Vs-" 

An  examination  of  990  seventh  and  eighth  grade  boys  in  the 
public  schools  of  St.  Paul  ^  showed  that  only  11%  of  them  de- 
sired to  enter  the  occupation  of  their  fathers;  there  was  a 
pronounced  tendency  to  choose  occupations  of  a  more  remu- 
nerative or  intellectual  and  less  manual  sort  than  that  followed 

^  The  coeflScient  of  contingency  is  similar  in  significance  to  the  coefficient  of  cor- 
relation, with  which  readers  have  already  become  familiar.  Miss  Perrin's  study 
is  in  Biometrika,  III  (1904),  pp.  467-469. 

^  "The  Social  Waste  of  Unguided  Personal  Ability."  By  Erville  B.  Woods, 
American  Journal  of  Sociology,  XIX  (1913)1  pp.  358-369- 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    373 

by  the  father.  That  this  preference  would  always  determine 
the  ultimate  occupation  is  not  to  be  expected,  as  a  considerable 
per  cent  may  fail  to  show  the  necessary  ability. 

While  inherited  tastes  and  aptitude  for  some  calling  probably 
should  carry  a  good  deal  of  weight  in  vocational  guidance,  we » 
can  not  share  the  exaggerated  view  which  some  sociologists 
hold  about  the  great  waste  of  ability  through  the  existence  of 
round  pegs  in  square  holes.  This  attitude  is  often  expressed  in 
such  words  as  those  of  E.  B.  Woods:  "Ability  receives  its  reward 
only  when  it  is  presented  with  the  opportunities  of  a  fairly  favor- 
able environment,  its  peculiarly  indispensable  sort  of  environ- 
ment. Naval  commanders  are  not  likely  to  be  developed  in  the 
Transvaal,  nor  literary  men  and  artists  in  the  soft  coal  fields  of 
western  Pennsylvania.  For  ten  men  who  succeed  as  investiga- 
tors, inventors,  or  diplomatists,  there  may  be  and  probably  are 
in  some  communities  fifty  more  who  would  succeed  better  under 
the  same  circumstances." 

While  there  is  some  truth  in  this  view,  it  exaggerates  the  evil 
by  ignoring  the  fact  that  good  qualities  frequently  go  together 
in  an  individual.  The  man  of  Transvaal  who  is  by  force  of  cir- 
cumstances kept  from  a  naval  career  is  likely  to  distinguish  him- 
self as  a  successful  colonist,  and  perhaps  enrich  the  world  even 
more  than  if  he  had  been  brought  up  in  a  maritime  state  and 
become  a  naval  commander.  It  may  be  that  his  inherited  talent 
fitted  him  to  be  a  better  naval  commander  than  anything  else; 
if  so,  it  probably  also  fitted  him  to  be  better  at  many  other  things, 
than  are  the  majority  of  men.  "Intrinsically  good  traits  have 
also  good  correlatives,"  physical,  mental  and  moral. 

F.  A.  Woods  has  brought  together  the  best  evidence  of  this, 
in  his  studies  of  the  royal  families  of  Europe.  If  the  dozen 
best  generals  were  selected  from  the  men  he  has  studied,  they 
would  of  course  surpass  the  average  man  enormously  in  military 
skill;  but,  as  he  points  out,  they  would  also  surpass  the  average 
man  to  a  very  high  degree  as  poets, — or  doubtless  as  cooks  or 
lawyers,  had  they  given  any  time  to  those  occupations.^ 

^  See  also  "Eugenics:  With  Special  Reference  to  Intellect  and  Character,"  by  E.  L. 
Thprndike.    In  Eugenics!  Twelve  University  Lectures,  pp.  319-342,  New  York,  1914. 


374  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

The  above  considerations  lead  to  two  suggestions  for  voca- 
tional guidance:  (i)  it  is  desirable  to  ascertain  and  make  use  of 
the  child's  inherited  capacities  as  far  as  possible;  but  (2)  it 
must  not  be  supposed  that  every  child  inherits  the  ability  to  do 
one  thing  only,  and  will  waste  his  life  if  he  does  not  happen  to 
get  a  chance  to  do  that  thing.  It  is  easy  to  suppose  that  the  man 
who  makes  a  failure  as  a  paperhanger  might,  if  he  had  had  the 
opportunity,  have  been  a  great  electrical  engineer;  it  is  easy  to 
cite  a  few  cases,  such  as  that  of  General  U.  S.  Grant,  which  seem 
to  lend  some  color  to  the  theory,  but  statistical  evidence  would 
indicate  it  is  not  the  rule.  If  a  man  makes  a  failure  as  a  paper- 
hanger,  it  is  at  least  possible  that  he  would  have  made  a  failure 
of  very  many  things  that  he  might  try;  and  if  a  man  makes  a 
brilliant  success  as  a  paperhanger,  or  railway  engineer,  or  school 
teacher,  or  chemist,  he  is  a  useful  citizen  who  would  probably 
have  gained  a  fair  measure  of  success  in  any  one  of  several  occu- 
pations that  he  might  have  taken  up  but  not  in  all. 

To  sum  up:  vocational  guidance  and  training  are  likely  to  be 
of  much  service  to  eugenics.  They  may  derive  direct  help  from 
heredity;  and  their  exponents  may  also  learn  that  a  man  who  is 
really  good  in  one  thing  is  likely  to  be  good  in  many  things,  and 
that  a  man  who  fails  in  one  thing  would  not  necessarily  achieve 
success  if  he  were  put  in  some  other  career.  One  of  their  greatest 
services  will  probably  be  to  put  a  lot  of  boys  into  skilled  trades, 
for  which  they  are  adapted  and  where  they  will  succeed,  and 
thus  prevent  them  from  yielding  to  the  desire  for  a  more  genteel 
clerical  occupation,  in  which  they  will  not  do  more  than  earn  a 
bare  living.  This  will  assist  in  bringing  about  the  high  correla- 
tion between  merit  and  income  which  is  so  much  to  be  desired. 

THE  MINIMUM  WAGE 

Legal  enactment  of  a  minimum  wage  is  often  urged  as  a 
measure  that  would  promote  social  welfare  and  race  better- 
ment. By  minimum  wage  is  to  be  understood,  according  to  its 
advocates,  not  the  wage  that  will  support  a  single  man,  but  one 
that  will  support  a  man,  wife,  and  three  or  four  children.    In 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    375 

the  United  States,  the  sum  necessary  for  this  purpose  can  hardly 
be  estimated  at  less  than  $2.50  a  day. 

A  living  wage  is  certainly  desirable  for  every  man,  but  the 
idea  of  giving  every  man  a  wage  sufficient  to  support  a  family 
can  not  be  considered  eugenic.  In  the  first  place,  it  interferes 
with  the  adjustment  of  wages  to  ability,  on  the  necessity  of 
which  we  have  often  insisted.  In  the  second  place,  it  is  not  de- 
sirable that  society  should  make  it  possible  for  every  man  to 
support  a  wife  and  three  children;  in  many  cases  it  is  desirable 
that  it  be  made  impossible  for  him  to  do  so.  Eugenically, 
teaching  methods  of  birth  control  to  the  married  unskilled  la- 
borer is  a  sounder  way  of  solving  his  problems,  than  subsidising 
him  so  he  can  support  a  large  family. 

It  must  be  frankly  recognized  that  poverty  is  in  many  ways 
eugenic  in  its  effect,  and  that  with  the  spread  of  birth  control 
among  people  below  the  poverty  line,  it  is  certain  to  be  still 
more  eugenic  than  at  present.  It  represents  an  effective,  even 
though  a  cruel,  method  of  keeping  down  the  net  birth-rate  of 
people  who  for  one  reason  or  another  are  not  economically 
efficient;  and  the  element  of  cruelty,  involved  in  high  infant 
mortality,  will  be  largely  mitigated  by  birth  control.  Free 
competition  may  be  tempered  to  the  extent  of  furnishing  every 
man  enough  charity  to  feed  him,  if  he  requires  charity  for  that 
purpose;  and  to  feed  his  family,  if  he  already  has  one;  but  charity 
which  will  allow  him  to  increase  his  family,  if  he  is  too  inefficient 
to  support  it  by  his  own  exertions,  is  rarely  a  benefit  eugenically. 

The  minimum  wage  is  admittedly  not  an  attempt  to  pay  a 
man  what  he  is  worth.  It  is  an  attempt  to  make  it  possible 
for  every  man,  no  matter  what  his  economic  or  social  value, 
to  support  a  family.  Therefore,  in  so  far  as  it  would  encourage 
men  of  inferior  quality  to  have  or  increase  families,  it  is  un- 
questionably dysgenic. 

MOTHERS'  PENSIONS 

Half  of  the  states  of  the  Union  have  already  adopted  some 
form  of  pension  for  widowed  mothers,  and  similar  measures  are 


376  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

being  urged  in  nearly  all  remaining  states.  The  earliest  of  these 
laws  goes  back  only  to  191 1. 

In  general/  these  laws  apply  to  mothers  who  are  widows,  or 
in  some  cases  to  those  who  have  lost  their  means  of  support 
through  imprisonment  or  incapacity  of  the  husband.  The 
maximum  age  of  the  child  on  whose  account  allowance  is  made 
varies  from  14  to  16,  in  a  few  cases  to  17  or  18.  The  amount 
allowed  for  each  child  varies  in  each  state,  approximately  be- 
tween the  limits  of  $100  and  $200  a  year.  In  most  states  the 
law  demands  that  the  mother  be  a  fit  person,  physically,  men- 
tally and  morally  to  bring  up  her  children,  and  that  it  be  to 
their  interest  that  they  remain  with  her  at  home  instead  of  being 
placed  at  work  or  sent  to  some  institution.  In  all  cases  consider- 
able latitude  is  allowed  the  administrator  of  the  law, — a  juvenile 
court,  or  board  of  county  commissioners,  or  some  body  with 
equivalent  powers. 

Laws  of  this  character  have  often  been  described  as  being 
eugenic  in  effect,  but  examination  shows  little  reason  for  such 
a  characterization.  Since  the  law  applies  for  the  most  part  to 
women  who  have  lost  their  husbands,  it  is  evident  that  it  is  not 
likely  to  affect  the  differential  birth-rate  which  is  of  such  con- 
cern to  eugenics.  On  the  whole,  mothers'  pensions  must  be  put 
in  the  class  of  work  which  may  be  undertaken  on  humanitarian 
grounds,  but  they  are  probably  slightly  dysgenic  rather  than 
eugenic,  since  they  favor  the  preservation  of  families  which  are, 
on  the  whole,  of  inferior  quality,  as  shown  by  the  lack  of  rel- 
atives with  ability  or  willingness  to  help  them.  On  the  other 
hand,  they  are  not  likely  to  result  in  the  production  from  these 
families  of  more  children  than  those  already  in  existence. 

HOUSING 

At  present  it  is  sometimes  difficult,  in  the  more  fashionable 
quarters  of  large  cities,  to  find  apartments  where  families  with 

'  See  U.  S.  Department  of  Labor,  Children's  Bureau  Publication,  No.  7,  "Laws 
Relating  to  Mothers'  Pensions  in  the  United  States,  Denmark  and  New  Zealand," 
Washington,  1014. 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    377 

children  are  admitted.  In  other  parts  of  the  city,  this  difficulty 
appears  to  be  much  less.  Such  a  situation  tends  to  discourage 
parenthood,  on  the  part  of  young  couples  who  come  of  good 
families  and  desire  to  live  in  the  part  of  the  city  where  their 
friends  are  to  be  found.  It  is  at  least  likely  to  cause  postpone- 
ment of  parenthood  until  they  feel  financially  able  to  take  a 
separate  house.  Here  is  an  influence  tending  to  lower  the  birth- 
rate of  young  couples  who  have  social  aspirations,  at  least  to 
the  extent  of  desiring  to  live  in  the  pleasanter  and  more  reputable 
part  of  their  city.  Such  a  hindrance  exists  to  a  much  less  extent, 
if  at  all,  for  those  who  have  no  reason  for  wanting  to  live  in  the 
fashionable  part  of  the  city.  This  discrimination  of  some  apart- 
ment owners  against  families  with  children  would  therefore 
appear  to  be  dysgenic  in  its  effect. 

Married  people  who  wish  to  live  in  the  more  attractive  part 
of  a  city  should  not  be  penalized.  The  remedy  is  to  make  it 
illegal  to  discriminate  against  children.  It  is  gratifying  to  note 
that  recently  a  number  of  apartment  houses  have  been  built  in 
New  York,  especially  with  a  view  to  the  requirements  of  chil- 
dren. The  movement  deserves  wide  encouragement.  Any 
apartment  house  is  an  unsatisfactory  place  in  which  to  bring 
up  children,  but  since  under  modern  urban  conditions  it  is  in- 
evitable that  many  children  must  be  brought  up  in  apartments, 
if  they  are  brought  up  at  all,  the  municipality  should  in  its  own 
interests  take  steps  to  ensure  that  conditions  will  be  as  good  as 
possible  for  them.  In  a  few  cases  of  model  tenements,  the 
favored  poor  tenants  are  better  off  than  the  moderately  well-to- 
do.  It  is  essential  that  the  latter  be  given  a  chance  to  have 
children  and  bring  them  up  in  comfortable  surroundings,  and 
the  provision  of  suitable  apartment  houses  would  be  a  gain  in 
every  large  city. 

The  growing  use  of  the  automobile,  which  permits  a  family 
to  live  under  pleasant  surroundings  in  the  suburbs  and  yet 
reach  the  city  daily,  alleviates  the  housing  problem  slightly. 
Increased  facilities  for  rapid  transit  are  of  the  utmost  importance 
in  placing  the  city  population  (a  selected  class,  it  will  be  re- 
membered) under  more  favorable  conditions  for  bringing  up 


378  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

their  children.    Zone  rates  should  be  designed  to  effect  this  dis- 
persal of  population. 

FEMINISM 

The  word  "feminism"  might  be  supposed  to  characterize  a 
movement  which  sought  to  emphasize  the  distinction  between 
woman's  nature  and  that  of  man  to  provide  for  women's  special 
needs.  It  was  so  used  in  early  days  on  the  continent.  But  at 
present  in  England  and  America  it  denotes  a  movement  which 
is  practically  the  reverse  of  this;  which  seeks  to  minimize  the 
difference  between  the  two  sexes.  It  may  be  broadly  described 
as  a  movement  which  seeks  to  remove  all  discrimination  based 
on  sex.  It  is  a  movement  to  secure  recognition  of  an  equality 
of  the  two  sexes.  The  feminists  variously  demand  that  woman 
be  recognized  as  the  equal  of  man  (i)  biologically,  (2)  politically, 
(3)  economically. 

I.  Whether  or  not  woman  is  to  be  regarded  as  biologically 
equal  to  man  depends  on  how  one  uses  the  word  "equal."  If 
it  is  meant  that  woman  is  as  well  adapted  to  her  own  particular 
kind  of  work  as  is  man  to  his,  the  statement  will  readily  be 
accepted.  Unfortunately,  feminists  show  a  tendency  to  go  be- 
yond this  and  to  minimize  differentiation  in  their  claims  of 
equality.  An  attempt  is  made  to  show  that  women  do  not 
differ  materially  from  men  in  the  nature  of  their  capacity  of 
mental  or  physical  achievement.  Mrs.  Charlotte  Perkins 
Oilman  makes  the  logical  application  by  demanding  that  little 
girls'  hair  be  cut  short  and  that  they  be  prevented  from  playing 
with  dolls  in  order  that  differences  fostered  in  this  way  be  re- 
duced. 

In  forming  a  judgment  on  this  proposition,  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  civilization  covers  not  more  than  10,000  years 
out  of  man's  history  of  half  a  million  or  more.  During  490,000 
out  of  the  500,000  years,  man  was  the  hunter  and  warrior;  while 
woman  stayed  at  home  of  necessity  to  bear  and  rear  the  young, 
to  skin  the  prey,  to  prepare  the  food  and  clothing.  He  must  have 
a  small  knowledge  of  biology  who  could  suppose  that  this  long 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    379 

history  would  not  lead  to  any  diflferentiation  of  the  two  sexes; 
and  the  biologist  knows  that  man  and  woman  in  some  respects 
differ  in  every  cell  of  their  bodies:  that,  as  Jacques  Loeb  says, 
"Man  and  woman  are,  physiologically,  different  species." 

But  the  biologist  also  knows  that  sex  is  a  quantitative  char- 
acter. It  is  impossible  to  draw  a  sharp  line  and  say  that  those 
on  one  side  are  in  every  respect  men,  and  those  on  the  other  side 
in  every  respect  women,  as  one  might  draw  a  line  between  goats 
and  sheep.  Many  women  have  a  considerable  amount  of  "  male- 
ness";  niunerous  men  have  distinct  feminine  characteristics, 
physical  and  mental.  There  is  thus  an  ill-defined  "intermedi- 
ate sex,"  as  Edward  Carpenter  called  it,  whose  size  has  been  kept 
down  by  sexual  selection ;  or  better  stated  there  is  so  much  over- 
lapping that  it  is  a  question  of  different  averages  with  many  in- 
dividuals of  each  sex  beyond  the  average  of  the  other  sex. 

A  perusal  of  Havelock  Ellis'  book,  Man  and  Woman,  will 
leave  little  doubt  about  the  fact  of  sex  differentiation,  just  as 
it  will  leave  little  doubt  that  one  sex  is,  in  its  way,  quite  as  good 
as  the  other,  and  that  to  talk  of  one  sex  as  being  inferior  is 
absurd. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  the  spread  of  feminism  will  reinforce 
the  action  of  sexual  selection  in  keeping  down  the  numbers  of 
this  "intermediate  sex."  In  the  past,  women  who  lacked  femin- 
inity or  maternal  instinct  have  often  married  because  the  pres- 
sure of  public  opinion  and  economic  conditions  made  it  uncom- 
fortable for  any  woman  to  remain  unmarried.  And  they  have 
had  children  because  they  could  not  help  it,  transmitting  to  their 
daughters  their  own  lack  of  maternal  instinct.  Under  the  new 
regime  a  large  proportion  of  such  women  do  not  marry,  and  ac- 
cordingly have  few  if  any  children  to  inherit  their  defects. 
Hence  the  average  level  of  maternal  instinct  of  the  women  of 
America  is  likely  steadily  to  rise. 

We  conclude  that  any  claim  of  biological  equality  of  the  two 
sexes  must  use  the  word  in  a  figurative  sense,  not  ignoring  the 
differentiation  of  the  two  sexes,  as  extreme  feminists  are  in- 
clined to  do.    To  this  differentiation  we  shall  return  later. 

2.  Political  equality  includes  the  demand  for  the  vote  and  for 


38o  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

the  removal  of  various  legal  restrictions,  such  as  have  sometimes 
prevented  a  wife  from  disposing  of  her  own  property  without 
the  consent  of  her  husband  or  such  as  have  made  her  citizenship 
follow  that  of  her  husband.  In  the  United  States,  these  legal 
restrictions  are  rapidly  being  removed,  at  such  a  rate  that  in 
some  states  it  is  now  the  husband  who  has  a  right  to  complain 
of  certain  legal  discriminations. 

Equal  suffrage  is  also  gaining  steadily,  but  its  eugenic  aspect 
is  not  wholly  clear.  Theoretically  much  is  to  be  said  for  it,  as 
making  use  of  woman's  large  social  sympathies  and  responsibili- 
ties and  interest  in  the  family;  but  in  the  states  where  it  has  been 
tried,  its  effects  have  not  been  all  that  was  hoped.  Beneficial 
results  are  to  be  expected  unless  an  objectionably  extreme  femin- 
ism finds  support. 

In  general,  the  demand  for  political  equality,  in  a  broad  sense, 
seems  to  the  eugenist  to  be  the  most  praiseworthy  part  of  the 
feminist  program.  The  abolition  of  those  laws,  which  now 
discharge  women  from  positions  if  they  marry  or  have  children, 
promises  to  be  in  principle  a  particularly  valuable  gain. 

3.  Economic  equality  is  often  summed  up  in  the  catch  phrase 
"equal  pay  for  equal  work."  If  the  phrase  refers  to  jobs  where 
women  are  competing  on  piecework  with  men,  no  one  will  ob- 
ject to  it.  In  practice  it  applies  particularly  to  two  distinct  but 
interlocking  demands:  (a)  that  women  should  receive  the  same 
pay  as  men  for  any  given  occupation — as,  stenography,  for  ex- 
ample; and  (b)  that  child-bearing  should  be  recognized  as  just 
as  much  worthy  of  remuneration  as  any  occupation  which  men 
enter,  and  should  be  paid  for  (by  the  state)  on  the  same  basis. 

At  present,  there  is  almost  universally  a  discrimination  against 
women  in  commerce  and  industry.  They  sometimes  get  no  more 
than  half  as  much  pay  as  men  for  similar  grades  of  employment. 
But  there  is  for  this  one  good  reason.  An  employer  needs  ex- 
perienced help,  and  he  expects  a  man  to  remain  with  him  and 
become  more  valuable.  He  is,  therefore,  willing  to  pay  more 
because  of  this  anticipation.  In  hiring  a  woman,  he  knows  that 
she  will  probably  soon  leave  to  marry.  But  whatever  may  be 
the  origin  of  this  discrimination,  it  is  justified  in  the  last  analysis 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    381 

by  the  fact  that  a  man  is  paid  as  the  head  of  a  family,  a  woman 
only  as  an  individual  who  ordinarily  has  fewer  or  no  dependents 
to  support.  Indeed,  it  is  largely  this  feature  which,  under  the  law 
of  supply  and  demand,  has  caused  women  to  work  for  low  wages. 

It  is  evident  that  real  economic  equality  between  men  and 
women  must  be  impossible,  if  the  women  are  to  leave  their 
work  for  long  periods  of  time,  in  order  to  bear  and  rear  children. 
It  is  normally  impossible  for  a  woman  to  earn  her  living  by  com- 
petitive labor,  at  the  same  time  that  she  is  bearing  and  rearing 
children.  Either  the  doctrine  of  economic  .equality  is  largely 
illusory,  therefore,  or  else  it  must  be  extended  to  making  mother- 
hood a  salaried  occupation  just  as  much  as  mill  work  or  stenog- 
raphy. 

The  feminists  have  almost  universally  adopted  the  latter 
alternative.  They  say  that  the  woman  who  is  capable  of  earn- 
ing money,  and  who  abandons  wage-earning  for  motherhood, 
ought  to  receive  from  the  state  as  nearly  as  possible  what  she 
would  have  received  if  she  had  not  had  children ;  or  else  they  de- 
clare that  the  expense  of  children  should  be  borne  wholly  by  the 
community. 

This  proposal  must  be  tested  by  asking  whether  it  would  tend 
to  strengthen  and  perpetuate  the  race  or  not.  It  is,  in  effect, 
a  proposal  to  have  the  state  pay  so  much  a  head  for  babies.  The 
fundamental  question  is  whether  or  not  the  quality  of  the  babies 
would  be  taken  into  account.  Doubtless  the  babies  of  obviously 
feebleminded  women  would  be  excluded,  but  would  it  be  pos- 
sible for  the  state  to  pay  liberally  for  babies  who  would  grow  up 
to  be  productive  citizens,  and  to  refuse  to  pay  for  babies  that 
would  doubtless  grow  up  to  be  incompetents,  dolts,  dullards, 
laggards  or  wasters?  The  scheme  would  work,  eugenically,  in 
proportion  as  it  is  discriminatory  and  graded. 

But  the  example  of  legislation  in  France  and  England,  and 
the  main  trend  of  popular  thought  in  America,  make  it  quite  cer- 
tain that  at  present,  and  for  many  years  to  come,  it  will  be  im- 
possible to  have  babies  valued  on  the  basis  of  quality  rather  than 
mere  numbers.  It  is  sometimes  possible  to  get  indirect  measures 
of  a  eugenic  nature  passed,  and  it  has  been  found  possible  to 


382  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

secure  the  passage  of  direct  measures  which  prevent  reproduc- 
tion of  those  who  are  actually  defective.  But  even  the  most  op- 
timistic eugenist  must  feel  that,  short  of  the  remote  future, 
any  attempt  to  have  the  state  grade  and  pay  for  babies  on  the 
basis  of  their  quality  is  certain  to  fail  to  pass. 

The  recent  action  of  the  municipality  of  Schonberg,  Berlin, 
is  typical.  It  is  now  paying  baby  bounties  at  the  rate  of  $12.50 
a  head  for  the  first  born,  $2,50  a  head  for  all  later  bom,  and  no 
questions  asked.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  any  success  which  the 
feminists  may  gain  in  securing  state  aid  for  mothers  in  America 
will  secure,  as  in  Schonberg,  in  England,  in  France,  and  in  Au- 
stralia, merely  a  small  uniform  sum.  This  acts  dysgenically 
because  it  is  a  stimulus  to  married  people  to  have  large  families 
in  inverse  proportion  to  their  income,  and  is  felt  most  by  those 
whose  purpose  in  having  children  is  least  approvable. 

The  married  woman  of  good  stock  ought  to  bear  four  children. 
For  many  reasons  these  ought  to  be  spaced  well  apart,  prefer- 
ably not  much  less  than  three  years.  She  must  have  oversight 
of  these  children  until  they  all  reach  adolescence.  This  means 
a  period  of  about  12+13  =  25  years  during  which  her  primary, 
though  by  no  means  her  only,  concern  will  be  mothercraft. 
It  is  hardly  possible  and  certainly  not  desirable  that  she  should 
support  herself  outside  of  the  home  during  this  period.  As  state 
support  would  pretty  certainly  be  indiscriminate  and  danger- 
ously dysgenic,  it  therefore  appears  that  the  present  custom  of 
having  the  father  responsible  for  the  support  of  the  family  is 
not  only  unavoidable  but  desirable.  If  so,  it  is  desirable  to  avoid 
reducing  the  wages  of  married  men  too  much  by  the  competition 
of  single  women. 

To  attain  this  end,  without  working  any  injustice  to  women, 
it  seems  wise  to  modify  their  education  in  general  in  such  a  way 
as  to  prepare  women  for  the  kinds  of  work  best  adapted  to  her 
capacities  and  needs.  Women  were  long  excluded  from  a  higher 
education,  and  when  they  secured  it,  they  not  unnaturally 
wanted  the  kind  of  education  men  were  receiving, — partly  in 
order  to  demonstrate  that  they  were  not  intellectually  inferior 
to  men.    Since  this  demonstration  is  now  complete,  the  continu- 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    383 

ation  of  duplicate  curricula  is  uncalled  for.  The  coeducational 
colleges  of  the  west  are  already  turning  away  from  the  old  single 
curriculum  and  are  providing  for  the  election  of  more  differen- 
tiated courses  for  women.  The  separate  women's  colleges  of 
the  east  will  doubtless  do  so  eventually,  since  their  own  gradu- 
ates and  students  are  increasingly  discontented  with  the  present 
narrow  and  obsolete  ideals.  If  the  higher  education  of  women, 
and  much  of  the  elementary  education,  is  directed  toward 
differentiating  them  from  men  and  giving  them  distinct  occu- 
pations (including  primarily  marriage  and  motherhood)  in- 
stead of  training  them  so  the  only  thing  they  are  capable  of 
doing  is  to  compete  with  men  for  men's  jobs,  the  demand  of 
"equal  pay  for  equal  work"  will  be  less  difficult  to  reconcile 
with  the  interests  of  the  race.  In  this  direction  the  feminists 
might  find  a  large  and  profitable  field  for  the  employment  of 
their  energies. 

There  is  good  ground  for  the  feminist  contention  that  women 
should  be  liberally  educated,  that  they  should  not  be  regarded 
by  men  as  inferior  creatures,  that  they  should  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  self-expression  in  a  richer,  freer  life  than  they  have  had 
in  the  past.  All  these  gains  can  be  made  without  sacrificing  any 
racial  interests;  and  they  must  be  so  made.  The  imrest  of  in- 
telligent women  is  not  to  be  lessened  or  removed  by  educating 
them  in  the  belief  that  they  are  not  different  from  men  and  set- 
ting them  to  work  as  men  in  the  work  of  the  world.  Except 
where  the  work  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  women  or  there  is  a 
special  individual  aptitude,  such  work  will,  for  the  reasons  we 
have  set  forth,  operate  dysgenically  and  therefore  bring  about 
the  decadence  of  the  race  which  practices  it. 

The  true  solution  is  rather  to  be  sought  in  recognizing  the 
natural  differentiation  of  the  two  sexes  and  in  emphasizing  this 
differentiation  by  education.  Boys  will  be  taught  the  nobility 
of  being  productive  and  of  establishing  families;  girls  will  have 
similar  ideals  held  up  to  them  but  will  be  taught  to  reach  them 
in  a  different  way,  through  cultivation  of  the  intellectual  and 
emotional  characters  most  useful  to  that  division  of  labor  for 
which  they  are  supremely  adapted,  as  well  as  those  that  are 


384  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

common  to  both  sexes.  The  home  must  not  be  made  a  subordi- 
nate interest,  as  some  feminists  desire,  but  it  must  be  made  a 
much  richer,  deeper,  more  satisfying  interest  than  it  is  too  fre- 
quently at  present. 

OLD  AGE  PENSIONS 

Pensions  for  aged  people  form  an  important  part  of  the  modem 
program  of  social  legislation.  What  their  merits  may  be  in 
relieving  poverty  will  not  be  discussed  here.  But  beyond  the 
direct  effect,  it  is  important  to  inquire  what  indirect  eugenic 
effect  they  would  have,  as  compared  with  the  present  system 
where  the  aged  are  most  frequently  supported  by  their  own  chil- 
dren when  they  have  failed  through  lack  of  thrift  or  for  other 
reasons  to  make  provision  for  their  old  age. 

The  ordinary  man,  dependent  on  his  daily  work  for  a  liveli- 
hood, can  not  easily  support  his  parents  and  his  offspring  at 
the  same  time.  Aid  given  to  the  one  must  be  in  some  degree  at 
the  expense  of  the  other.  The  eugenic  consequences  will  depend 
on  what  class  of  man  is  required  to  contribute  thus  to  parental 
support. 

It  is  at  once  obvious  that  superior  families  will  rarely  encounter 
this  problem.  The  parents  will,  by  their  superior  earning  ca- 
pacity and  the  exercise  of  thrift  and  foresight,  have  provided  for 
the  wants  of  their  old  age.  A  superior  man  will  therefore 
seldom  be  under  economic  pressure  to  limit  the  number  of  his 
own  children  because  6f  the  necessity  of  supporting  his  parents. 
In  inferior  families,  on  the  other  hand,  the  parents  will  have  made 
no  adequate  provision  for  their  old  age.  A  son  will  have  to 
assume  their  support,  and  thus  reduce  the  number  of  his  own 
children, — a  eugenic  result.  With  old  age  pensions  from  the 
state,  the  economic  pressure  would  be  taken  off  these  inferior 
families  and  the  children  would  thus  be  encouraged  to  marry 
earlier  and  have  more  children, — a  dysgenic  result. 

From  this  point  of  view,  the  most  eugenic  course  would  per- 
haps be  to  make  the  support  of  parents  by  children  compul- 
sory, in  cases  where  any  support  was  needed.    Such  a  step  would 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    385 

not  handicap  superior  families,  but  would  hold  back  the  in- 
ferior. A  contributory  system  of  old  age  pensions,  for  which 
the  money  was  provided  out  of  the  individual's  earnings,  and 
laid  aside  for  his  old  age,  would  also  be  satisfactory.  A  system 
which  led  to  the  payment  of  old  age  pensions  by  the  state  would 
be  harmful. 

The  latter  system  would  be  evil  in  still  another  way  because, 
as  is  the  case  with  most  social  legislation  of  this  type,  the  funds 
for  carrying  out  such  a  scheme  must  naturally  be  furnished  by 
the  efficient  members  of  the  community.  This  adds  to  their 
financial  burdens  and  encourages  the  young  men  to  postpone 
marriage  longer  and  to  have  fewer  children  when  they  do  marry, 
— a  dysgenic  result. 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  old  age  pensions  paid  by  the  state 
would  be  dysgenic  in  a  number  of  ways,  encouraging  the  increase 
of  the  inferior  part  of  the  population  at  the  expense  of  the  su- 
perior. If  old  age  pensions  are  necessary,  they  should  be  con- 
tributory. 

THE  SEX  HYGIENE  MOVEMENT 

Sexual  morality  is  thought  by  some  to  be  substantially  syn- 
onymous with  eugenics  or  to  be  included  by  it.  One  of  the  au- 
thors has  protested  previously  ^  against  this  confusion  of  the 
meaning  of  the  word  "eugenics."  The  fallacy  of  believing  that 
a  campaign  against  sexual  immorality  is  a  campaign  for  eugen- 
ics will  be  apparent  if  the  proposition  is  analyzed. 

First,  does  sexual  immorality  increase  or  decrease  the  mar- 
riage rate  of  the  offenders?  We  conclude  that  it  reduces  the 
marriage  rate.  Although  it  is  true  that  some  individuals  might 
by  sexual  experience  become  so  awakened  as  to  be  less  satis- 
fied with  a  continent  life,  and  might  thus  in  some  cases  be  led 
to  marriage,  yet  this  is  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  fol- 
lowing considerations: 

I.  The  mere  consciousness  of  loss  of  virginity  has  led  in  some 
sensitive  persons,  especially  women,  to  an  unwilUngness  to 
*  American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  XX,  No.  i,  pp.  g6-i03,  July,  igi4. 


386  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

marry  from  a  sense  of  imworthiness.     This  is  not  common, 
yet  such  cases  are  known. 

2.  The  loss  of  reputation  has  prevented  the  marriage  of  the 
desired  mates.    This  is  not  at  all  uncommon. 

3.  Venereal  infection  has  led  to  the  abandonment  of  marriage. 
This  is  especially  common. 

4.  Illicit  experiences  may  have  been  so  disillusioning,  owing 
to  the  disaffecting  nature  of  the  consorts,  that  an  attitude  of 
pessimism  and  misanthropy  or  misogyny  is  built  up.  Such  an 
attitude  prevents  marriage  not  only  directly,  but  also  indirectly, 
since  persons  with  such  an  outlook  are  thereby  less  attractive 
to  the  opposite  sex. 

5.  A  taste  for  sexual  variety  is  built  up  so  that  the  individual 
is  unwilling  to  commit  himself  to  a  monogamous  union. 

6.  Occasionally,  threat  of  blackmail  by  a  jilted  paramour 
prevents  marriage  by  the  inability  to  escape  these  importunities. 

We  consider  next  the  relative  birth-rate  of  the  married  and  the 
incontinent  unmarried.  There  can  not  be  the  slightest  doubt 
that  this  is  vastly  greater  in  the  case  of  the  married.  The  un- 
married have  not  only  all  the  incentives  of  the  married  to  keep 
down  their  birth-rate  but  also  the  obvious  and  powerful  incentive 
of  concealment  as  well. 

Passing  to  the  relative  death-rate  of  the  illegitimate  and  legiti- 
mate progeny,  the  actual  data  invariably  indicate  a  decided 
advantage  of  the  legitimately  born.  The  reasons  are  too  ob- 
vious to  be  retailed. 

Now,  then,  knowing  that  the  racial  contribution  of  the  sexu- 
ally moral  is  greater  than  that  of  the  sexually  immoral,  we  may 
compare  the  quality  of  the  sexually  moral  and  immoral,  to  get 
the  evolutionary  effect. 

For  this  purpose  a  distinction  must  be  made  between  the 
individual  who  has  been  chaste  till  the  normal  time  of  mar- 
riage and  whose  sexual  life  is  truly  monogamous,  and  that 
abnormal  group  who  remain  chaste  and  celibate  to  an  advanced 
age.  These  last  are  not  moral  in  the  last  analysis,  if  they  have 
valuable  and  needed  traits  and  are  fertile,  because  in  the  long 
run  their  failure  to  reproduce  afifects  adversely  the  welfare  of 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    387 

their  group.  While  the  race  suffers  through  the  failure  of  many 
of  these  individuals  to  contribute  progeny,  probably  this  does 
not  happen,  so  far  as  males  are  concerned,  as  much  as  might  be 
supposed,  for  such  individuals  are  often  innately  defective  in 
their  instincts  or,  in  the  case  of  disappointed  lovers,  have  a 
badly  proportioned  emotional  equipment,  since  it  leads  them 
into  a  position  so  obviously  opposed  to  race  interests. 

But,  to  pass  to  the  essential  comparison,  that  between  the 
sexually  immoral  and  the  sexually  moral  as  limited  above,  it  is 
necessary  first  of  all  to  decide  whether  monogamy  is  a  desirable 
and  presumably  permanent  feature  of  human  society. 

We  conclude  that  it  is: 

1.  Because  it  is  spreading  at  the  expense  of  polygamy  even 
where  not  favored  by  legal  interference.  The  change  is  most 
evident  in  China. 

2.  In  monogamy,  sexual  selection  puts  a  premium  on  valu- 
able traits  of  character,  rather  than  on  mere  personal  beauty 
or  ability  to  acquire  wealth;  and 

3.  The  greatest  amount  of  happiness  is  produced  by  a  mono- 
gamous system,  since  in  a  polygamous  society  so  many  men  must 
remain  unmarried  and  so  many  women  are  dissatisfied  with 
having  to  share  their  mates  with  others. 

Assuming  this,  then  adaptation  to  the  condition  of  monoga- 
mous society  represents  race  progress.  Such  a  race  profits  if 
those  who  do  not  comply  with  its  conditions  make  a  deficient 
racial  contribution.  It  follows  then  that  sexual  immorality 
is  eugenic  in  its  result  for  the  species  and  that  if  all  sexual  im- 
moraUty  should  cease,  an  important  means  of  race  progress 
might  be  lost.  An  illustration  is  the  case  of  the  Negro  in 
America,  whose  failure  to  increase  more  rapidly  in  number  is 
largely  attributable  to  the  widespread  sterility  resulting  from 
venereal  infection.^      Should  venereal  diseases  be  eliminated, 

^  According  to  Captain  (now  Lt.  Col.)  E.  B.  Vedder  of  the  Medical  Corps,  U.  S.  A., 
50%  of  the  Negroes  of  the  class  applying  for  enlistment  in  the  army  are  syphilitic. 
He  believes  that  the  amount  of  infection  among  Negro  women  is  about  the  same. 
{Therapeutic  Gazette,  May  15,  igi6.)  Venereal  disease  must,  then,  play  a  much 
more  important  part  than  is  generally  supposed,  in  cutting  down  the  birth-rate  of 
the  Negro  race,  but  it  would  of  course  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  an  abnormally 


388  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

that  race  might  be  expected  to  increase  in  numbers  very 
much  faster  than  the  whites. 

It  may  be  felt  by  some  that  this  position  would  have  an  im- 
moral effect  upon  youth  if  widely  accepted.  This  need  not 
be  feared.  On  the  contrary,  we  believe  that  one  of  the  most 
powerful  factors  in  ethical  culture  is  pride  due  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  being  one  who  is  fit  and  worthy. 

The  traditional  view  of  sexual  morality  has  been  to  ignore 
the  selectional  aspect  here  discussed  and  to  stress  the  alleged 
deterioration  of  the  germ-plasm  by  the  direct  action  of  the 
toxins  of  syphilis.  The  evidence  relied  upon  to  demonstrate 
this  action  seems  to  be  vitiated  by  the  possibility  that  there 
was,  instead,  a  transmitted  infection  of  the  progeny.  This 
"racial  poison"  action,  since  it  is  so  highly  improbable  from 
analogy,  can  not  be  credited  until  it  has  been  demonstrated  in 
cases  where  the  parents  have  been  indubitably  cured. 

Is  it  necessary,  then,  to  retain  sexual-  immorality  in  order  to 
achieve  race  progress?  No,  because  it  is  only  one  of  many 
factors  contributing  to  race  progress.  Society  can  mitigate 
this  as  well  as  alcoholism,  disease,  infant  mortality — all  pow- 
erful selective  factors — without  harm,  provided  increased  ef- 
ficiency of  other  selective  factors  is  ensured,  such  as  the  segre- 
gation of  defectives,  more  effective  sexual  selection,  a  better 
correlation  of  income  and  ability,  and  a  more  eugenic  distri- 
bution of  family  limitation. 

TRADES  UNIONISM 

A  dysgenic  feature  often  found  in  trades  unionism  will  easily 
be  understood  after  our  discussion  of  the  minimum  wage.    The 

low  birth-rate  among  Negroes  is  always  to  be  explained  on  this  ground.  Professor 
Kelly  Miller  points  out  {Scientific  Monthly,  June,  igiy)  that  the  the  birth-rate  among 
college  professors  at  Howard  University,  the  leading  Negro  institution  for  higher 
education,  is  only  0.7  of  a  child  and  that  the  completed  families  will  hardly  have 
more  than  two  children.  He  attributes  this  to  (i)  the  long  period  of  education  re- 
quired of  Negro  "intellectuals",  (2)  the  high  standard  of  living  required  of  them, 
and  (3)  the  unwillingness  of  some  of  them  to  bring  children  into  the  world,  because 
of  the  feeling  that  these  children  would  suffer  from  race  prejudice. 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS    389 

union  tends  to  standardize  wages;  it  tends  to  fix  a  wage  in  a 
given  industry,  and  demand  that  nearly  all  workers  in  that  clas- 
sification be  paid  that  wage.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  some  of 
these  workers  are  much  more  capable  than  others.  Artificial  in- 
terference with  a  more  exact  adjustment  of  wages  to  ability 
therefore  penalizes  the  better  workmen  and  subsidizes  the  worse 
ones.  Economic  pressure  is  thereby  put  on  the  better  men  to 
have  fewer  children,  and  with  the  worse  men  encourages  more 
children,  than  would  be  the  case  if  their  incomes  more  nearly  rep- 
resented their  real  worth.  Payment  according  to  the  product, 
with  prizes  and  bonuses  so  much  opposed  by  the  unions,  is 
more  in  accord  with  the  principles  of  eugenics. 

PROHIBITION 

It  was  shown  in  Chapter  II  that  the  attempt  to  ban  alcoholic 
beverages  on  the  ground  of  direct  dysgenic  effect  is  based  on 
dubious  evidence.  But  the  prohibition  of  the  use  of  liquors,  at 
least  those  containing  more  than  5%  alcohol,  can  be  defended  on 
indirect  eugenic  grounds,  as  well  as  on  the  familiar  grounds  of 
pathology  and  economics  which  are  commonly  cited. 

1.  Unless  it  is  present  to  such  a  degree  as  to  constitute  a 
neurotic  taint,  the  desire  to  be  stimulated  is  not  of  itself  nec- 
essarily a  bad  thing.  This  will  be  particularly  ciear  if  the 
distribution  of  the  responsiveness  to  alcoholic  stimulus  is 
recalled.  Some  really  valuable  strains,  marked  by  tjiis 
susceptibiUty,  may  be  eliminated  through  the  death  of  some 
individuals  from  debauchery  and  the  penalization  of  others 
in  preferential  mating;  this  would  be  avoided  if  narcotics 
were  not  available. 

2.  In  selection  for  eugenic  improvement,  it  is  desirable  not 
to  have  to  select  for  too  many  traits  at  once.  If  alcoholism 
could,  through  prohibition,  be  eliminated  from  consideration, 
it  would  just  so  far  simplify  the  problem  of  eugenics. 

3.  Drunkenness  interferes  with  the  effectiveness  of  means  for 
family  limitation,  so  that  if  his  alcoholism  is  not  extreme,  the 
drunkard's  family  is  sometimes  larger  than  it  would  otherwise  be. 


39©  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

On  the  other  hand,  prohibition  is  dysgenic  and  intemperance 
is  eugenic  in  their  effect  on  the  species  in  so  far  as  alcohoHsm 
is  correlated  with  other  undesirable  characters  and  brings 
about  the  elimination  of  undesirable  strains.  But  its  action 
is  not  sufl&ciently  discriminating  nor  decisive;  and  if  the  strains 
have  many  serious  defects,  they  can  probably  be  dealt  with 
better  in  some  other,  more  direct  way. 

We  conclude,  then,  that,  on  the  whole,  prohibition  is  desirable 
for  eugenic  as  well  as  for  other  reasons. 

PEDAGOGICAL  CELIBACY 

Whether  women  are  more  efficient  teachers  than  men,  and 
whether  single  women  are  more  efficient  teachers  than  married 
women,  are  disputed  questions  which  it  is  not  proposed  here  to 
consider.  Accepting  the  present  fact,  that  most  of  the  school 
teachers  in  the  United  States  are  unmarried  women,  it  is  proper 
to  examine  the  eugenic  consequences  of  this  condition. 

The  withdrawal  of  this  large  body  of  women  from  the  career 
of  motherhood  into  a  celibate  career  may  be  desirable  if  these 
women  are  below  the  average  of  the  rest  of  the  women  of  the 
population  in  eugenic  quality.  But  it  would  hardly  be  possible 
to  find  enough  eugenic  inferiors  to  fill  the  ranks  of  teachers, 
without  getting  those  who  are  inferior  in  actual  ability,  in 
patent  as  well  as  latent  traits.  And  the  idea  of  placing 
education  in  the  hands  of  such  inferior  persons  is  not  to  be 
considered. 

It  is,  therefore,  inevitable  that  the  teachers  are,  on  the  whole, 
superior  persons  eugenically.  Their  celibacy  must  be  considered 
highly  detrimental  to  racial  welfare. 

But,  it  may  be  said,  there  is  a  considerable  number  of  women 
so  deficient  in  sex  feeling  or  emotional  equipment  that  they  are 
certain  never  to  marry;  they  are,  nevertheless,  persons  of  in- 
tellectual ability.  Let  them  be  the  school  teachers.  This 
solution  is,  however,  not  acceptable.  Many  women  of  the 
character  described  undoubtedly  exist,  but  they  are  better 
placed  in  some  other  occupation.    It  is  wholly  undesirable  that 


EUGENICS  AND  SOME  SPECIFIC  REFORMS     391 

children  should  be  reared  under  a  neuter  influence,  which  is 
probably  too  common  already  in  education. 

If  women  are  to  teach,  then,  it  must  be  concluded  that  on 
eugenic  grounds  preference  should  be  given  to  married  rather 
than  single  teachers,  and  that  the  single  ones  should  be  encour- 
aged to  marry.  This  requires  (i)  that  considerable  change  be 
made  in  the  education  of  young  women,  so  that  they  shall  be 
fitted  for  motherhood  rather  than  exclusively  for  school  teach- 
ing as  is  often  the  case,  and  (2)  that  social  devices  be  brought 
into  play  to  aid  them  in  mating — since  undoubtedly  a  proportion 
of  school  teachers  are  single  from  the  segregating  character  of 
their  profession,  not  from  choice,  and  (3)  provision  for  employing 
some  women  on  half-time  and  (4)  increase  of  the  number  of 
male  teachers  in  high  schools. 

It  is,  perhaps,  unnecessary  to  mention  a  fifth  change  neces- 
sary: that  school  boards  must  be  brought  to  see  the  undesirabil- 
ity  of  employing  only  unmarried  women,  and  of  discharging 
them,  no  matter  how  efficient,  if  they  marry  or  have  children. 
The  courts  must  be  enabled  to  uphold  woman's  right  of  marriage 
and  motherhood,  instead  of,  as  in  some  cases  at  present,  up- 
holding school  boards  in  their  denial  of  this  right.  Contracts 
which  prevent  women  teachers  from  marrying  or  discontinuing 
their  work  for  marriage  should  be  illegal,  and  talk  about  the 
"moral  obligation"  of  normal  school  graduates  to  teach  should 
be  discountenanced. 

Against  the  proposal  to  employ  married  school  teachers,  two 
objections  are  urged.  It  is  said  (i)  that  for  most  women  school 
teaching  is  merely  a  temporary  occupation,  which  they  take  up 
to  pass  the  few  years  until  they  shall  have  married.  To  this  it 
may  be  replied  that  the  hope  of  marriage  too  often  proves  illusory 
to  the  young  woman  who  enters  on  the  pedagogical  career,  be- 
cause of  the  lack  of  opportunities  to  meet  men,  and  because  the 
nature  of  her  work  is  not  such  as  to  increase  her  attractiveness 
to  men,  nor  her  fitness  for  home-making.  Pedagogy  is  too  often 
a  sterilizing  institution,  which  takes  young  women  who  desire 
to  marry  and  impairs  their  chance  of  marriage. 

Again  it  will  be  said  (2)  that  married  teachers  would  lose  too 


•392  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

much  time  from  their  work;  that  their  primary  interests  would 
be  in  their  own  homes  instead  of  in  the  school;  that  they  could 
not  teach  school  without  neglecting  their  own  children.  These 
objections  fall  in  the  realm  of  education,  not  eugenics,  and  it 
can  only  be  said  here  that  the  reasons  must  be  extraordinarily 
cogent,  which  will  justify  the  enforcement  of  celibacy  on  so  large 
a  body  of  superior  young  women  as  is  now  engaged  in  school 
teaching. 

The  magnitude  of  the  problem  is  not  always  realized.  In 
1914  the  Commissioner  of  education  reported  that  there  were, 
in  the  United  States,  169,929  men  and  537,123  women  engaged 
in  teaching.  Not  less  than  half  a  million  women,  therefore,  are 
potentially  affected  by  the  institution  of  pedagogical  celibacy. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
RELIGION  AND  EUGENICS 

Man  is  the  only  animal  with  a  religion.  The  conduct  of  the 
lower  animals  is  guided  by  instinct,^  and  instinct  normally  works 
for  the  benefit  of  the  species.  Any  action  which  is  dictated  by 
instinct  is  likely  to  result  in  the  preservation  of  the  species,  even 
at  the  expense  of  the  individual  which  acts,  provided  there  has 
not  been  a  recent  change  in  the  environment. 

But  in  the  human  species  reason  appears,  and  conduct  is  no 
longer  governed  by  instinct  alone.  A  young  man  is  impelled  by 
instinct,  for  instance,  to  marry.  It  is  to  the  interests  of  the 
species  that  he  marry,  and  instinct  therefore  causes  him  to  desire 
to  marry  and  to  act  as  he  desires.  A  lower  animal  would  obey 
the  impulse  of  instinct  without  a  moment's  hesitation.  Not  so 
the  man.  Reason  intervenes  and  asks,  "Is  this  really  the  best 
thing  for  you  to  do  now?  Would  you  not  better  wait  awhile  and 
get  a  start  in  your  business?  Of  course  marriage  would  be  agree- 
able, but  you  must  not  be  shortsighted.  You  don't  want  to 
assume  a  handicap  just  now."  There  is  a  corresponding  re- 
action among  the  married  in  respect  to  bearing  additional  chil- 
dren. The  interests  of  self  are  immediate  and  easily  seen,  the 
interests  of  the  species  are  not  so  pressing.  In  any  such  con- 
flict between  instinct  and  reason,  one  must  win;  and  if  reason 
wins  it  is  in  some  cases  for  the  immediate  benefit  of  the  indi- 
vidual but  at  the  expense  of  the  species'  interests. 

Now  with  reason  dominant  over  instinct  in  man,  there  is 
a  grave  danger  that  with  each  man  consulting  his  own  interests 
instead  of  those  of  the  species,  some  groups  and  even  races 

1  One  can  not  draw  a  hard  and  fast  distinction  between  reason  and  instinct  in  this 
way,  nor  deny  to  animals  all  ability  to  reason.  We  have  simplified  the  case  to  make 
it  more  graphic.  The  fact  that  higher  animals  may  have  mental  processes  corre- 
sponding to  some  of  those  we  call  reason  in  man  does  not  impair  the  validity  of  our 
generalization,  for  the  present  purpose. 

393 


394  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

will  become  exterminated.  Along  with  reason,  therefore,  it  is 
necessary  that  some  other  forces  shall  appear  to  control  rea- 
son and  give  the  interests  of  the  species  a  chance  to  be  heard 
along  with  the  interests  of  the  individual. 

One  such  force  is  religion.  Without  insisting  that  this  is  the 
only  view  which  may  be  taken  of  the  origin  of  reUgion,  or  that 
this  is  the  only  function  of  religion,  we  may  yet  assert  that  one 
of  the  useful  purposes  serv^ed  by  religion  is  to  cause  men  to  adopt 
lines  of  conduct  that  will  be  for  the  good  of  the  race,  although 
it  may  sacrifice  the  immediate  good  of  the  individual.^  Thus  if 
a  young  Mohammedan  be  put  in  the  situation  just  described, 
he  may  decide  that  it  is  to  his  material  interest  to  postpone 
marriage.  His  religion  then  obtrudes  itself,  with  quotations 
from  the  Prophet  to  the  effect  that  Hell  is  peopled  with  bach- 
elors. The  young  man  is  thereupon  moved  to  marry,  even  if  it 
does  cause  some  inconvenience  to  his  business  plans.  Religion, 
reinforcing  instinct,  has  triumphed  over  reason  and  gained  a 
victory  for  the  larger  interests  of  the  species,  when  they  con- 
flict with  the  immediate  interests  of  the  individual. 

From  this  point  of  view  we  may,  paraphrasing  Matthew 
Arnold,  define  religion  as  motivated  ethics.  Ethics  is  a  knowledge 
of  right  conduct,  religion  is  an  agency  to  produce  right  conduct. 
And  its  working  is  more  like  that  of  instinct  than  it  is  like  that  of 
reason.  The  irreligious  man,  testing  a  proposition  by  reason 
alone,  may  decide  that  it  is  to  the  interests  of  all  concerned  that 
he  should  not  utter  blasphemy.  The  orthodox  Christian  never 
considers  the  pros  and  cons  of  the  question;  he  has  the  Ten 
Commandments  and  the  teachings  of  his  youth  in  his  mind, 
and  he  refrains  from  blasphemy  in  almost  the  instinctive  way 
that  he  refrains  from  putting   his  hand  on  a  hot  stove. 

This  chapter  proposes  primarily  to  consider  how  eugenics  can 
be  linked  with  religion,  and  specifically  the  Christian  religion; 
but  the  problem  is  not  a  simple  one,  because  Christianity  is  made 
of  diverse  elements.  Not  only  has  it  undergone  some  change 
during  the  last  1900  years,  but  it  was  founded  upon  Judaism, 

'  See  Jewish  Eugenics  and  Other  Essays.  By  Rabbi  Max  Rcichler,  New  York, 
Bloch  Publishing  Co.,  1916. 


RELIGION  AND  EUGENICS  395 

which  itself  involved  diverse  elements.    We  shall  undertake  to 
show  that  eugenics  fits  in  well  with  Christianity;  but  it  must 
fit  in  with  different  elements  in  different  ways. 
We  can  distinguish  four  phases  of  religion : 

1.  Charm  and  taboo,  or  reward  and  punishment  in  the  present 
life.  The  believer  in  these  processes  thinks  that  certain  acts 
possess  particular  efficacies  beyond  those  evident  to  his  observa- 
tion and  reason;  and  that  peculiar  malignities  are  to  be  expected 
as  the  consequence  of  certain  other  acts.  Perhaps  no  one  in  the 
memory  of  the  tribe  has  ever  tested  one  of  these  acts  to  find 
whether  the  expected  result  would  appear;  it  is  held  as  a  matter 
of  religious  belief  that  the  result  would  appear,  and  the  act  is 
therefore  avoided. 

2.  Reward  and  punishment  in  a  future  life  after  death. 
Whereas  the  first  system  was  supposed  to  bring  immediate  re- 
ward and  punishment  as  the  result  of  certain  acts,  this  second 
system  postpones  the  result  to  an  after-life.  There  is  in  nature 
a  system  of  reward  and  punishment  which  everyone  must  have 
observed  because  it  is  part  of  the  universal  sequence  of  cause 
and  effect;  but  these  two  phases  of  religion  carry  the  idea  still 
farther;  they  postulate  rewards  and  punishments  of  a  super- 
natural character,  over  and  above  those  which  naturally  occur. 
It  is  important  to  note  that  in  neither  of  these  systems  is  God 
essentially  involved.  They  are  in  reality  independent  of  the 
idea  of  God,  since  that  is  called  "luck"  in  some  cases  which  in 
others  is  called  the  favor  or  wrath  of  God.  And  again  in  some 
cases,  one  may  be  damned  by  a  human  curse,  although  in  others 
this  curse  of  damnation  is  reserved  for  divine  power. 

3.  Theistic  religion.  In  essence  this  consists  of  the  satisfac- 
tion derived  from  doing  that  which  pleases  God,  or  "getting  into 
harmony  with  the  underlying  plan  of  the  universe,"  as  some  put 
it.  It  is  idealistic  and  somewhat  mystic.  It  should  be  distin- 
guished from  the  idea  of  doing  or  believing  certain  things  to 
insure  salvation,  which  is  not  essentially  theistic  but  belongs 
under  (2).  The  true  theist  desires  .to  conform  to  the  will  of  God, 
wholly  apart  from  whether  he  will  be  rewarded  or  punished  for 
so  doing. 


396  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

4.  Humanistic  religion.  This  is  a  willingness  to  make  the 
end  of  ethics  the  totality  of  happiness  of  all  men,  or  some  large 
group  of  men,  rather  than  to  judge  conduct  solely  by  its  effects 
on  some  one  individual.  At  its  highest,  it  is  a  sort  of  loyalty  to 
the  species. 

It  must  be  noted  that  most  cults  include  more  than  one  of 
these  elements — usually  all  of  them  at  various  stages.  As  a 
race  rises  in  intelligence,  it  tends  to  progress  from  the  first  two 
toward  the  last  two,  but  usually  keeping  parts  of  the  earlier 
attitude,  more  or  less  clearly  expressed.  And  individual  ad- 
herents of  a  religion  usually  have  different  ideas  of  its  scope; 
thus  the  religious  ideas  of  many  Christians  embrace  all  four  of 
the  above  elements;  others  who  equally  consider  themselves 
Christians  may  be  influenced  by  little  more  than  (4)  alone,  or 
(3)  alone,  or  even  (2)  alone. 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  any  one  of  these  types  of, 
religion  is  the  only  one  adapted  to  promoting  sound  ethics  in 
all  individuals,  nor  that  a  similar  culture  can  bring  about  uni- 
formity in  the  near  future,  since  the  religion  of  a  race  corresponds 
to  some  extent  to  the  inherent  nature  of  the  mind  of  its  in- 
dividuals. Up  to  a  certain  point,  each  type  of  religion  has  a 
distinct  appeal  to  a  certain  temperament  or  type  of  mind.  With 
increasing  intelligence,  it  is  probable  that  a  religion  tends  to 
emphasize  the  interests  of  all  rather  than  the  benefits  to  be  de- 
rived by  one;  such  has  been  clearly  the  case  in  the  history  of  the 
Christian  religion.  The  diverse  elements  of  retribution,  damna- 
tion, "communion  with  God"  and  social  service  still  exist,  but 
in  America  the  last-named  one  is  yearly  being  more  emphasized. 
Emphasis  upon  it  is  the  marked  characteristic  of  Jesus'  teaching. 

With  this  rough  sketch  of  religious  ideas  in  mind,  the  part 
religion  can  play  at  the  present  day  in  advancing  the  eugenic 
interests  of  the  race  or  species  may  be  considered.  Each  religion 
can  serve  eugenics  just  as  well  as  it  can  serve  any  other  field 
of  ethics,  and  by  the  very  same  devices.  We  shall  run  over  our 
four  types  again  and  note  what  appeals  eugenics  can  make  to 
each  one. 

I.  Reward  and  punishment  in  this  life.     Here  the  value  of 


RELIGION  AND  EUGENICS  397 

children,  emotionally  and  economically,  to  their  parents  in  their 
later  life  can  be  shown,  and  the  dissatisfaction  that  is  felt  by  the 
childless.  The  emotions  may  be  reached  (as  they  have  been 
reached  in  past  centuries)  by  the  painting  of  Madonnas,  the 
singing  of  lullabies,  by  the  care  of  the  baby  sister,  by  the  laurel 
wreath  of  the  victorious  son,  by  the  great  choruses  of  white- 
robed  girls,  by  the  happiness  of  the  bride,  and  by  the  sentiment 
of  the  home.  Here  are  some  of  the  noblest  subjects  for  the  arts, 
which  in  the  past  have  unconsciously  served  eugenics  well.  In  a 
less  emotional  way,  a  deep  desire  for  that  "  terrestrial  immortal- 
ity" involved  in  posterity  should  be  fostered.  The  doctrine  of 
the  continuity  of  germ-plasm  might  play  a  large  part  in  religion. 
It  should  at  least  be  brought  home  to  everyone  at  some  point  in 
his  education.  Man  should  have  a  much  stronger  feeling  of 
identity  with  his  forebears  and  his  progeny.  Is  it  not  a  loss 
to  Christians  that  they  have  so  much  less  of  this  feeling  than  the 
Chinese? 

It  may  be  urged  in  opposition  that  such  conceptions  are 
dangerously  static  and  have  thereby  harmed  China.  But  that 
can  be  avoided  by  shifting  the  balance  a  little  from  progeni- 
tors to  posterity.  If  people  should  live  more  in  their  children 
than  they  now  do,  they  would  be  not  only  anxious  to  give  them  a 
sound  heredity,  but  all  the  more  eager  to  improve  the  condi- 
tions of  their  children's  environment  by  modifying  their  own. 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  sort  of  propaganda  is  indiscrimi- 
nate,— that  it  may  further  the  reproduction  of  the  inferior  just 
as  much  as  the  superior.  We  think  not.  Such  steps  appeal  more 
to  the  superior  type  of  mind  and  will  be  little  heeded  by  the  in- 
ferior.   They  will  be  ultimately,  if  not  directly,  discriminative. 

In  so  far  as  the  foregoing  appeals  to  reason  alone  it  is  not  re- 
ligion. The  appeal  to  reason  must  either  be  emotionalized  or 
colored  with  the  supernatural  to  be  religion. 

2.  Reward  and  punishment  in  a  future  life.  Here  the  belief 
in  the  absolute,  verbal  inspiration  of  sacred  writings  and  the 
doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith  alone  are  rapidly  passing,  and  it  is 
therefore  the  easier  to  bring  eugenics  into  this  type  of  religion. 
Even  where  salvation  by  faith  is  still  held  as  an  article  of  creed, 


398  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

it  is  accompanied  by  the  concession  that  he  who  truly  beheves 
will  manifest  his  belief  by  works.  Altruism  can  be  found  in  the 
sacred  writings  of  probably  all  religions,  and  the  modem  tend- 
ency is  to  make  much  of  such  passages,  in  which  it  is  easy  for 
the  eugenist  to  find  a  warrant.  What  is  needed  here,  then,  is  to 
impress  upon  the  leaders  in  this  field  that  eugenic  conduct  is  a 
"good  work"  and  as  such  they  may  properly  include  it  along 
with  other  modern  virtues,  such  as  honest  voting  and  abstinence 
from  graft  as  a  key  to  heaven.  Dysgenic  conduct  should 
equally  be  taught  to  be  an  obstacle  to  salvation. 

3.  Theism.  The  man  who  is  most  influenced  by  the  desire 
to  be  at  one  with  God  naturally  wants  to  act  in  accordance  with 
God's  plan.  But  God  being  omnibeneficent,  he  necessarily  be- 
lieves that  God's  plan  is  that  which  is  for  the  best  interests  of 
His  children — unless  he  is  one  of  those  happily  rare  individuals 
who  still  believe  that  the  end  of  man  is  to  glorify  God  by  voice, 
not  by  means  of  human  betterment. 

This  type  of  religion  (and  the  other  types  in  different  degrees) 
is  a  great  motive  power.  It  both  creates  energy  in  its  adherents, 
and  directs  that  energy  into  definite  outlets.  It  need  only  be 
made  convincingly  evident  that  eugenics  is  truly  a  work  of 
himian  betterment, — really  the  greatest  work  of  human  better- 
ment, and  a  partnership  with  God — to  have  it  taken  up  by  this 
type  of  religion  with  all  the  enthusiasm  which  it  brings  to  its  work. 

4.  The  task  of  enlisting  the  humanist  appears  to  be  even 
simpler.  It  is  merely  necessary  to  show  him  that  eugenics  in- 
creases the  totality  of  happiness  of  the  human  species.  Since 
the  keynote  of  his  devotion  is  loyalty,  we  might  make  this  plea: 
"Can  we  not  make  every  superior  man  or  woman  ashamed  to 
accept  existence  as  a  gift  from  his  or  her  ancestors,  only  to  ex- 
tinguish this  torch  instead  of  handing  it  on?  " 

Eugenics  is  in  some  ways  akin  to  the  movement  for  the  con- 
servation of  natural  resources.  In  pioneer  days  a  race  uses  up 
its  resources  without  hesitation.  They  seem  inexhaustible. 
Some  day  it  is  recognized  that  they  are  not  inexhaustible,  and 
then  such  members  of  the  race  as  are  guided  by  good  ethics  be- 
gin to  consider  the  interests  of  the  future. 


RELIGION  AND  EUGENICS  399 

No  system  of  ethics  is  worth  the  name  which  does  not  make 
provision  for  the  future.  It  is  right  here  that  the  ethics  of 
present-day  America  is  too  often  found  wanting.  As  this  fault 
is  corrected,  eugenics  will  be  more  clearly  seen  as  an  integral 
part  of  ethics. 

Provision  for  the  future  of  the  individual  leads,  in  a  very  low 
state  of  civilization,  to  the  accumulation  of  wealth.  Even  the 
ants  and  squirrels  have  so  much  ethics!  Higher  in  the  evolu- 
tionary scale  comes  provision  for  the  future  of  children;  their 
interests  lead  to  the  foundation  of  the  family  and,  at  a  much 
later  date,  a  man  looks  not  only  to  his  immediate  children  but 
to  future  generations  of  heirs,  when  he  entails  his  estates  and 
tries  to  establish  a  notable  family  line.  Provision  for  the  future 
is  the  essence  of  his  actions.  But  so  far  only  the  individual  or 
those  related  closely  to  him  have  been  taken  into  consideration. 
With  a  growth  of  altruism,  man  begins  to  recognize  that  he  must 
make  provision  for  the  future  of  the  race;  that  he  should  apply  to 
all  superior  families  the  same  anxiety  which  he  feels  that  his 
children  shall  not  tarnish  the  family  name  by  foolish  marriages; 
that  they  shall  grow  up  strong  and  intelligent.  This  feeling 
interpreted  by  science  is  eugenics,  an  important  element  of 
which  is  religion:  for  religion  more  than  any  other  influence 
leads  one  to  look  ahead,  and  to  realize  that  immediate  benefits 
are  not  the  greatest  values  that  man  can  secure  in  life, — that 
there  is  something  beyond  and  superior  to  eating,  drinking  and 
being  merry. 

If  the  criterion  of  ethical  action  is  the  provision  it  makes  for 
the  future,  then  the  ethics  of  the  eugenist  must  rank  high,  for 
he  not  only  looks  far  to  the  future,  but  takes  direct  and  effective 
steps  to  safeguard  the  future. 

Theoretically,  then,  there  is  a  place  for  eugenics  in  every  type 
of  religion.  In  practice,  it  will  probably  make  an  impression 
only  on  the  dynamic  religions, — those  that  are  actually  accom- 
plishing something.  Buddhism,  for  example,  is  perhaps  too 
contemplative  to  do  anything.  But  Christianity,  above  any 
other,  would  seem  to  be  the  natural  ally  of  the  eugenist.  Chris- 
tianity itself  is  undergoing  a  rapid  change  in  ideals  at  present, 


400  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

and  it  seems  impossible  that  this  evolution  should  leave  its 
adherents  as  ignorant  of  and  indifferent  to  eugenics  as  they  have 
been  in  the  past — even  during  the  last  generation. 

Followers  of  other  religions,  as  this  chapter  has  attempted  to 
show,  can  also  make  eugenics  a  part  of  their  respective  religions. 
If  they  do  not,  then  it  bodes  ill  for  the  future  of  their  religion 
and  of  their  race. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  get  people  to  see  the  value  of  eugenics, — - 
to  give  an  intellectual  adhesion  to  it.  But  as  eugenics  sometimes 
calls  for  seeming  sacrifices,  it  is  much  more  difficult  to  get  people 
to  act  eugenically.  We  have  at  numerous  points  in  this  book 
emphasized  the  necessity  of  making  the  eugenic  appeal  emo- 
tional, though  it  is  based  fundamentally  on  sound  reasoning 
from  facts  of  biology. 

The  great  value  of  religion  in  this  connection  is  that  it  provides 
a  driving  power,^  a  source  of  action,  which  the  intellect  alone  can 
rarely  furnish.  Reason  itself  is  usually  an  inhibitor  of  action. 
It  is  the  emotions  that  impel  one  to  do  things.  The  utilization 
of  the  emotions  in  affecting  conduct  is  by  no  means  always  a 
part  of  religion,  yet  it  is  the  essence  of  religion.  Without  aban- 
doning the  appeal  to  reason,  eugenists  must  make  every  effort 
to  enlist  potent  emotional  forces  on  their  side.  There  is  none 
so  strong  and  available  as  religion,  and  the  eugenist  may  turn 
to  it  with  confidence  of  finding  an  effective  ally,  if  he  can  once 
gain  its  sanction. 

The  task,  as  this  chapter  was  intended  to  show,  is  a  complex 
one,  yet  we  see  no  insuperable  obstacles  to  it.  Eugenics  may 
not  become  a  part  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  a  whole,  until 
scientific  education  is  much  more  widespread  than  at  present, 
but  it  is  not  too  soon  to  make  a  start,  by  identifying  the  inter- 
ests of  the  two  wherever  such  identification  is  justified  and 
profitable. 

We  have  endeavored  to  point  out  that  as  a  race  rises,  and 
instinct  becomes  less  important  in  guiding  the  conduct  of  its 
members,  religion  has  often  put  a  restraint  on  reason,  guiding 

^Dublin,  Louis  I.,  "Significance  of  the  Declining  Birth  Rate,"  Congressional 
Record,  Jan.  ii,  1918. 


RELIGION  AND  EUGENICS  401 

the  individual  in  racially  profitable  paths.  What  is  to  happen 
when  religion  gives  way?  Unbridled  selfishness  too  often  takes 
the  reins,  and  the  interests  of  the  species  are  disregarded.  Re- 
ligion, therefore,  appears  to  be  a  necessity  for  the  perpetuation 
of  any  race.  It  is  essential  to  racial  welfare  that  the  national 
religion  should  be  of  such  a  character  as  to  appeal  to  the  emo- 
tions effectively  and  yet  conciliate  the  reason.  We  believe  that 
the  religion  of  the  future  is  likely  to  acquire  this  character, 
in  proportion  as  it  adheres  to  eugenics.  There  is  no  room  in  the 
civilized  world  now  for  a  dysgenic  religion.  Science  will  progress. 
The  idea  of  evolution  will  be  more  firmly  grasped.  Religion 
itself  evolves,  and  any  religion  which  does  not  embrace  eugenics 
will  embrace  death. 


CHAPTER  XX 
EUGENICS  AND  EUTHENICS 

Emphasis  has  been  given,  in  several  of  the  foregoing  chapters, 
to  the  desirabiUty  of  inheriting  a  good  constitution  and  a  high 
degree  of  vigor  and  disease-resistance.  It  has  been  asserted 
that  no  measures  of  hygiene  and  sanitation  can  take  the  place 
of  such  inheritance.  It  is  now  desirable  to  ascertain  the  limits 
within  which  good  inheritance  is  effective,  and  this  may  be  con- 
veniently done  by  a  study  of  the  lives  of  a  group  of  people  who 
inherited  exceptionally  strong  physical  constitutions. 

The  people  referred  to  are  taken  from  a  collection  of  histories 
of  long  life  made  by  the  Genealogical  Record  Office  of  Wash- 
ington.^ One  hundred  individuals  were  picked  out  at  random, 
each  of  whom  had  died  at  the  age  of  90  or  more,  and  with  the 
record  of  each  individual  were  placed  those  of  all  his  brothers 
and  sisters.  Any  family  was  rejected  in  which  there  was  a  record 
of  wholly  accidental  death  (e.  g.,  families  of  which  a  member  had 
been  killed  in  the  Civil  War).  The  100  families,  or  more  cor- 
rectly fraternities  or  sibships,  were  classified  by  the  number  of 
children  per  fraternity,  as  follows: 

» At  the  request  of  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  founder  and  director  of  the  Genealogi- 
cal Record  Oflfice,  Paul  Popenoe  made  an  examination  and  report  on  these  records 
in  the  fall  of  iqi6.  Thanks  are  due  to  Dr.  Bell  for  permitting  the  use  in  this  chapter 
of  two  portions  of  the  investigation. 


402 


EUGENICS  AND  EUTHENICS  403 


Number  of 

Total  number 

Number  of 

children  per 

of  children 

fraternities 

fraternity 

in  group 

I 

2 

2 

II 

3 

3S 

8 

4 

32 

17 

5 

8S 

13 

6 

78 

14 

7 

98 

9 

8 

72 

II 

9 

99 

10 

10 

100 

3 

II 

Zi 

2 

12 

24 

I 

13 

13 

669 


The  average  at  death  of  these  669  persons  was  64.7  years. 
The  child  mortality  (first  4  years  of  life)  was  7.5%  of  the  total 
mortality,  69  families  showing  no  deaths  of  that  kind.  The 
group  is  as  a  whole,  therefore,  long-lived. 

The  problem  was  to  measure  the  resemblance  between  broth- 
ers and  sisters  in  respect  of  longevity, — to  find  whether  knowl- 
edge of  the  age  at  which  one  died  would  justify  a  prediction  as 
to  the  age  at  death  of  the  others, — or  technically,  it  was  to 
measure  the  fraternal  correlation  of  longevity.  A  zero  coef- 
ficient here  would  show  that  there  is  no  association;  that  from 
the  age  at  which  one  dies,  nothing  whatever  can  be  predicted 
as  to  the  age  at  which  the  others  will  die.  Since  it  is  known  that 
heredity  is  a  large  factor  in  longevity,  such  a  finding  would 
mean  that  all  deaths  were  due  to  some  accident  which  made 
the  inheritance  of  no  account. 

In  an  ordinary  population  it  has  been  found  that  the  age 
at  death  of  brothers  and  sisters  furnishes  a  coefficient  of  corre- 
lation of  the  order  of  .3,  which  shows  that  heredity  does  de- 


404  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

termine  the  age  at  which  one  shall  die  to  considerable  extent, 
but  not  absolutely.^ 

The  index  of  correlation  ^  between  the  lengths  of  life  within 
the  fraternity  in  these  loo  selected  families,  furnished  a  coef- 
ficient of  — .0163:^.0672,  practically  zero.  In  other  words,  if 
the  age  is  known  at  which  a  member  of  one  of  these  families 
died,  whether  it  be  one  month  or  100  years,  nothing  whatever 
can  be  predicted  about  the  age  at  which  his  brothers  and  sisters 
died. 

Remembering  that  longevity  is  in  general  inherited,  and  that 
it  is  found  in  the  families  of  all  the  people  of  this  study  (since 
one  in  each  fraternity  lived  to  be  90  or  over)  how  is  one  to  in- 
terpret this  zero  coefficient?  Evidently  it  means  that  although 
these  people  had  inherited  a  high  degree  of  longevity,  their 
deaths  were  brought  about  by  causes  which  prevented  the 
heredity  from  getting  full  expression.  As  far  as  hereditary 
potentialities  are  concerned,  it  can  be  said  that  all  their  deaths 
were  due  to  accident,  using  that  word  in  a  broad  sense  to  in- 
clude all  non-selective  deaths  by  disease.  If  they  had  all  been 
able  to  get  the  full  benefit  of  their  heredity,  it  would  appear 
that  each  of  these  persons  might  have  lived  to  90  or  more,  as 

'  Beeton,  Mary,  and  Karl  Pearson,  Biomeirika  I,  p.  60.  The  actual  correlatioH 
varies  with  the  age  and  sex:  the  following  are  the  results; 

Collateral  Inheritance 

Elder  kdult  brother  and  younger  adult  brother 2290  i    0194 

Adult  brother  and  adult  brother 2853  i  .0196 

Minor  brother  and  minor  brother 1026  i    0294 

Adult  brother  and  minor  brother — .0262^  .0246 

Elder  adult  sister  and  younger  adult  sister 3464  i  .0183 

Adult  sister  and  adult  sister 3322^  .0185 

Minor  sister  and  minor  sister 1748  i    0307 

Adult  sister  and  minor  sister — .0260^  .0291 

Adult  brother  and  adult  sister 23194;    0145 

Minor  brother  and  minor  sister 1435  i  .0251 

Adult  brother  and  minor  sister — .0062^::    0349 

Adult  sister  and  minor  brother —  0274^  .0238 

*  The  method  used  is  the  ingenious  one  devised  by  J.  Arthur  Harris  {Biomeirika 
IX,  p.  461).    The  probable  error  is  based  on  n  =  100. 


EUGENICS  AND  EUTHENICS  405 

did  the  one  in  each  family  who  was  recorded  by  the  Genealogi- 
cal Record  Office.  Genetically,  these  other  deaths  may  be 
spoken  of  as  premature. 

In  an  ordinary  population,  the  age  of  death  is  determined  to 
the  extent  of  probably  50%  by  heredity.  In  this  selected  long- 
lived  population,  heredity  appears  not  to  be  responsible  in  any 
measurable  degree  whatsoever  for  the  differences  in  age  at  death. 

The  result  may  be  expressed  in  another,  and  perhaps  more 
striking,  way.  Of  the  669  individuals  studied,  a  hundred — 
namely,  one  child  in  each  family — lived  beyond  90;  and  there 
were  a  few  others  who  did.  But  some  550  of  the  group,  though 
they  had  inherited  the  potentiality  of  reaching  the  average  age 
of  90,  actually  died  somewhere  around  60;  they  failed  by  at  least 
one-third  to  live  up  to  the  promise  of  their  inheritance.  If  we 
were  to  generalize  from  this  single  case,  we  would  have  to  say 
that  five-sixths  of  the  population  does  not  make  the  most  of  its 
physical  inheritance. 

This  is  certainly  a  fact  that  discourages  fatalistic  optimism. 
The  man  who  tells  himself  that,  because  of  his  magnificent  in- 
herited constitution,  he  can  safely  take  any  risk,  is  pretty  sure 
to  take  too  many  risks  and  meet  with  a  non-selective — i.  e., 
genetically,  a  premature — death,  when  he  might  in  the  nature 
of  things  have  lived  almost  a  generation  longer. 

It  should  be  remarked  that  most  of  the  members  of  this  group 
seem  to  have  lived  in  a  hard  environment.  They  appear  to  be- 
long predominantly  to  the  lower  strata  of  society;  many  of  them 
are  immigrants  and  only  a  very  few  of  them,  to  judge  by  a 
cursory  inspection  of  the  records,  possessed  more  than  moder- 
ate means.  This  necessitated  a  frugal  and  industrious  life  which 
in  many  ways  was  doubtless  favorable  to  longevity  but  which 
may  often  have  led  to  overexposure,  overwork,  lack  of  proper 
medical  treatment,  or  other  causes  bf  a  non-selective  death. 
We  would  not  push  the  conclusion  too  far,  but  we  can  not  doubt 
that  this  investigation  shows  the  folly  of  ignoring  the  environ- 
ment,— shows  that  the  best  inherited  constitution  must  have 
a  fair  chance.  And  what  has  here  been  found  for  a  physical 
character,  would  probably  hold  good  in  even  greater  degree 


4o6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

for  a  mental  character.  All  that  man  inherits  is  the  capacity 
to  develop  along  a  certain  line  under  the  influence  of  proper 
stimuli, — food  and  exercise.  The  object  of  eugenics  is  to  see 
that  the  inherent  capacity  is  there.  Given  that,  the  educational 
system  is  next  needed  to  furnish  the  stimuU.  The  consistent 
eugenist  is  therefore  an  ardent  euthenist.  He  not  only  works 
for  a  better  human  stock  but,  because  he  does  not  want  to  see 
his  efforts  wasted,  he  always  works  to  provide  the  best  possible 
environment  for  this  better  stock. 

In  so  far,  then,  as  euthenics  is  actually  providing  man  with 
more  favorable  surroimdings, — not  with  ostensibly  more  favor- 
able surroundings  which,  in  reality,  are  unfavorable — there  can 
be  no  antagonism  between  it  and  eugenics.  Eugenics  is,  in 
fact,  a  prerequisite  of  euthenics,  for  it  is  only  the  capable  and 
altruistic  man  who  can  contribute  to  social  progress;  and  such 
a  man  can  only  be  produced  through  eugenics. 

Eugenic  fatalism,  a  blind  faith  in  the  omnipotence  of  heredity 
regardless  of  the  surroundings  in  which  it  is  placed,  has  been 
shown  by  the  study  of  long-lived  families  to  be  unjustified.  It 
was  found  that  even  those  who  inherited  exceptional  longevity 
usually  did  not  live  as  long  as  their  inheritance  gave  them  the 
right  to  expect.  If  they  had  had  more  euthenics,  they  should 
have  lived  longer. 

But  this  illustration  certainly  gives  no  ground  for  a  belief 
that  euthenics  is  sufficient  to  prolong  one's  life  beyond  the  in- 
herited limit.  A  study  of  these  long-lived  families  from  another 
point  of  view  will  reveal  that  heredity  is  the  primary  factor  and 
that  good  environment,  euthenics,  is  the  secondary  one. 

For  this  purpose  we  augment  the  loo  families  of  the  preceding 
section  by  the  addition  of  240  more  families  like  them,  and  we 
examine  each  family  history  to  find  how  many  of  the  children 
died  before  completing  the  fourth  year  of  life.  The  data  are 
summarized  in  the  following  table: 


EUGENICS  AND  EUTHENICS  407 

Child  Mortality  in  Faahlies  of  Long-lived  Stock,  Genealogical 


Record  Office  Data 

No. 

of  families 

Si^'-e  of 

No.  of  families 

showing  deaths 

Total  no. 

family 

investigated 

under  5  years 

of  deaths 

I  child 

6 

0 

0 

2  children 

6 

0 

0 

3          " 

38 

4 

5 

4 

40 

6 

7 

5 

38 

4 

4 

6 

44 

12 

13 

7 

34 

8 

II 

8 

46 

13 

18 

9 

31 

14 

20 

10         *' 

27 

14 

14 

II          " 

13 

6 

9 

12          " 

13 

9 

16 

13 

I 

0 

0 

14         " 

2 

0 

0 

17 

I 

I 

2 

340  91  119 

The  addition  of  the  new  families  (which  were  not  subjected 
to  any  different  selection  than  the  first  100)  has  brought  down 
the  child  mortality  rate.  For  the  first  100,  it  was  found  to  be 
7.5%.  If  in  the  above  table  the  number  of  child  deaths,  119, 
,be  divided  by  the  total  number  of  children  represented,  2,259, 
the  child  mortality  rate  for  this  population  is  found  to  be  5.27%, 
or  53  per  thousand. 

The  smallness  of  this  figure  may  be  se«i  by  comparison  with 
the  statistics  of  the  registration  area,  U.  S.  Census  of  1880,  when 
the  child  mortality  (0-4  years)  was  400  per  thousand,  as  cal- 
culated by  Alexander  Graham  Bell.  A  mortality  of  53  for  the 
first  four  years  of  life  is  smaller  than  any  district  known  in 
the  United  States,  even  to-day,  can  show  for  the  first  year  of  life 
alone.  If  any  city  could  bring  the  deaths  of  babies  during  their 
first  twelve  months  down  to  53  per  1,000,  it  would  think  it  had 
achieved  the  impossible;  but  here  is  a  population  in  which  53 
per  1,000  covers  the  deaths,  not  only  of  the  fatal  first  12  months, 
but  of  the  following  three  years  in  addition. 


4o8  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

Now  this  population  with  an  unprecedentedly  low  rate  of 
child  mortality  is  not  one  which  had  had  the  benefit  of  any  Baby 
Saving  Campaign,  nor  even  the  knowledge  of  modern  science. 
Its  mothers  were  mostly  poor,  many  of  them  ignorant;  they 
lived  frequently  under  conditions  of  hardship;  they  were  peas- 
ants and  pioneers.  Their  babies  grew  up  without  doctors,  with- 
out pasteurized  milk,  without  ice,  without  many  sanitary  precau- 
tions, usually  on  rough  food.  But  they  had  one  advantage  which 
no  amount  of  applied  science  can  give  after  birth — namely,  good 
heredity.    They  had  inherited  exceptionally  good  constitutions. 

It  is  not  by  accident  that  inherited  longevity  in  a  family  is 
associated  with  low  mortality  of  its  children.  The  connection 
between  the  two  facts  was  first  discovered  by  Mary  Beeton 
and  Karl  Pearson  in  their  pioneer  work  on  the  inheritance  of 
duration  of  life.  They  found  that  high  infant  mortality  was 
associated  with  early  death  of  parents,  while  the  offspring  of 
long-lived  parents  showed  few  deaths  in  childhood.  The  cor- 
relation of  the  two  facts  was  quite  regular,  as  will  be  evident 
from  a  glance  at  the  following  tables  prepared  by  A.  Plcetz: 

Length  of  Life  of  Mothers  and  Child-mortality  of  Their  Daughters. 
English  Quaker  Families,  Data  of  Beeton  and  Pearson,  Ar- 
ranged BY  Plcetz 

Year  of  life  in  which  mothers  died  At 

o  38      39-53       54-68      69-83      84  up  all 

ages 

No.  of  daughters 234  304  395  666  247        1846 

No.  of  them  who  died  in 

first  5  years 122  114  118  131  26  511 

Per    cent,    of   daughters 
who  died 52.1        37.5        29.9        19.7        10.5        27  7 

Length  of  Life  of  Fathers  and  Child  Mortality  of  Their  Daughters 

At 
Year  of  life  in  which  fathers  died  all 

to  38      39-53       54-68       69-83       84  up         ages 

No.  of  daughters 105  284  585  797  236         2009 

No.  of  them  who  died  in 

first  5  years 51  98  156  177  40  522 

Per    cent,    of    daughters 
who  died 48.6        34.5        26.7        22.2         17.0        26.0 


EUGENICS  AND  EUTHENICS  409 

To  save  space,  we  do  not  show  the  relation  between  parent  and 
son;  it  is  similar  to  that  of  parent  and  daughter  which  is  shown 
in  the  preceding  tables.  In  making  comparison  with  the  340 
families  from  the  Genealogical  Record  Office,  above  studied,  it 
must  be  noted  that  Dr.  Plcetz '  tables  include  one  year  longer  in 
the  period  of  child  mortality,  being  computed  for  the  first  five 
years  of  life  instead  of  the  first  four.  His  percentages  would 
therefore  be  somewhat  lower  if  computed  on  the  basis  used  in 
the  American  work. 

These  various  data  demonstrate  the  existence  of  a  consider- 
able correlation  between  short  life  (brachybioiy,  Karl  Pearson 
calls  it)  in  parent  and  short  life  in  offspring.  Not  only  is  the 
tendency  to  live  long  inherited,  but  the  tendency  not  to  live 
long  is  likewise  inherited. 

But  perhaps  the  reader  may  think  they  show  nothing  of  the 
sort.  He  may  fancy  that  the  early  death  of  a  parent  left  the 
child  without  sufiicient  care,  and  that  neglect,  poverty,  or  some 
other  factor  of  euthenics  brought  about  the  child's  death.  Per- 
haps it  lacked  a  mother's  loving  attention,  or  perhaps  the  father's 
death  removed  the  wage-earner  of  the  family  and  the  child 
thenceforth  lacked  the  necessities  of  life. 

Dr.  Plcetz  has  pointed  out  ^  that  this  objection  is  not  valid, 
because  the  influence  of  the  parent's  death  is  seen  to  hold  good 
even  to  the  point  where  the  child  was  too  old  to  require  any  as- 
sistance. If  the  facts  applied  only  to  cases  of  early  death,  the 
supposed  objection  might  be  weighty,  but  the  correlation  exists 
from  one  end  of  the  age-scale  to  the  other.  It  is  not  credible 
that  a  child  is  going  to  be  deprived  of  any  necessary  maternal 
care  when  its  mother  dies  at  the  age  of  69;  the  child  herself 
was  probably  married  long  before  the  death  of  the  mother.  Nor 
is  it  credible  that  the  death  of  the  father  takes  bread  from  the 
child's  mouth,  leaving  it  to  starve  to  death  in  the  absence  of  a 
pension  for  widowed  mothers,  if  the  father  died  at  83,  when  the 
"child"  herself  was  getting  to  be  an  old  woman.  The  early 
death  of  a  parent  may  occasionally  bring  about  the  child's 

^  A.  Plcetz,  "  Lebensdauer  der  Eltern  und  Kindersterblichkeit,"  Archivfiir  Rassen- 
und  Geselhchafls-Biologie,  VI  (1909),  pp.  33-43. 


410  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

death  for  a  reason  wholly  unconnected  with  heredity,  but  the 
facts  just  pointed  out  show  that  such  cases  are  exceptional. 
The  steady  association  of  the  child  death-rate  and  parent  death- 
rate  at  all  ages  demonstrates  that  heredity  is  a  common  cause. 

But  the  reader  may  suspect  another  fallacy.  The  cause  of 
this  association  is  really  environmental,  he  may  think,  and  the 
same  poverty  or  squalor  which  causes  the  child  to  die  early  may 
cause  the  parent  to  die  early.  They  may  both  be  of  healthy, 
long-lived  stock,  but  forced  to  live  in  a  pestiferous  slum  which 
cuts  both  of  them  off  prematurely  and  thereby  creates  a  spurious 
correlation  in  the  statistics. 

We  can  dispose  of  this  objection  most  effectively  by  bringing 
in  new  evidence.  It  will  probably  be  admitted  that  in  the  royal 
families  of  Europe,  the  environment  is  as  good  as  knowledge 
and  wealth  can  make  it.  No  child  dies  for  lack  of  plenty  of 
food  and  the  best  medical  care,  even  if  his  father  or  mother  died 
young.  And  the  members  of  this  caste  are  not  exposed  to  any 
such  unsanitary  conditions,  or  such  economic  pressure  as  could 
possibly  cause  both  parent  and  child  to  die  prematurely.  If 
the  association  between  longevity  of  parent  and  child  mortality 
holds  for  the  royal  families  of  Europe  and  their  princely  relatives, 
it  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  anything  but  the  effect  of  heredity, 
— of  the  inheritance  of  a  certain  type  of  constitution. 

Dr.  Plcetz  studied  the  deaths  of  3,210  children  in  European 
royalty,  from  this  viewpoint.  The  following  table  shows  the 
relation  between  father  and  child: 

Length  of  Life  of  Fathers  and  Child-mortality  of  Their  Children 
IN  Royal  and  Princely  Families,  Plcetz'  Data 

Al 
Year  of  life  in  which  fathers  died  Years     all 

16-25  26-35  36-45  46-SS  56-65  66-75  76-85  86  up  ages 
No.  of  children.  23  90  367  545  725  983  444  33  3210 
No.  who  died  in 

first  5  years.  .12         29       115       171       200       254       105  i       887 

Per    cent,    who 
died 52.2    32.2     31.3     31.4     27.6     25.8     23.6      3.0     27.6 

Allowing  for  the  smallness  of  some  of  the  groups,  it  is  evident 


EUGENICS  AND  EUTHENICS  411 

that  the  amount  of  correlation  is  about  the  same  here  as  among 
the  English  Quakers  of  the  Beeton-Pearson  investigation, 
whose  mortality  was  shown  in  the  two  preceding  tables.  In 
the  healthiest  group  from  the  royal  families — the  cases  in  which 
the  father  lived  to  old  age — the  amount  of  child  mortahty  is 
about  the  same  as  that  of  the  Hyde  family  in  America,  which 
Alexander  Graham  Bell  has  studied — namely,  somewhere  around 
250  per  1,000.  One  may  infer  that  the  royal  families  are  rather 
below  par  in  soundness  of  constitution.^ 

All  these  studies  agree  perfectly  in  showing  that  the  amount 
of  child  mortality  is  determined  primarily  by  the  physical  con- 
stitution of  the  parents,  as  measured  by  their  longevity.  In 
the  light  of  these  facts,  the  nature  of  the  extraordinarily  low 
child  mortality  shown  in  the  340  families  from  the  Genealogical 
Record  Office,  with  which  we  began  the  study  of  this  point, 
can  hardly  be  misunderstood.  These  families  have  the  best 
inherited  constitution  possible  and  the  other  studies  cited  would 
make  us  certain  of  finding  a  low  child  mortality  among  them, 
even  if  we  had  not  directly  investigated  the  facts. 

If  the  interpretation  which  we  have  given  is  correct,  the  con- 
clusion is  inevitable  that  child  mortality  is  primarily  a  problem 
of  eugenics,  and  that  all  other  factors  are  secondary.  There  is 
found  to  be  no  warrant  for  the  statement  so  often  repeated  in 
one  form  or  another,  that  "the  fundamental  cause  of  the  ex- 
cessive rate  of  infant  mortality  in  industrial  communities  is 
poverty,  inadequate  incomes,  and  low  standards  of  living."  ^ 
Royalty  and  its  princely  relatives  are  not  characterized  by  a 
low  standard  of  living,  and  yet  the  child  mortality  among  them 
is  very  high — somewhere  around  400  per  i  ,000,  in  cases  where  a 
parent  died  young.  If  poverty  is  responsible  in  the  one  case, 
it  must  be  in  the  other — which  is  absurd.  Or  else  the  logical 
absurdity  is  involved  of  inventing  one  cause  to  explain  an  effect 
to-day  and  a  wholly  different  cause  to  explain  the  same  effect  to- 

'  Or  it  may  be  supposed  that  the  environment  is  so  good  as  to  make  a  non-selective 
death  less  likely,  and  therefore  such  deaths  as  do  occur  must  more  frequently  be 
selective. 

*  Hibbs,  Henry  H.,  Jr.,  Infant  Mortality:  Its  Relation  to  Social  and  Industrial 
Conditions,  New  York,  1916. 


412  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

morrow.  This  is  unjustifiable  in  any  case,  and  it  is  particularly 
so  when  the  single  cause  that  explains  both  cases  is  so  evident. 
If  weak  heredity  causes  high  mortahty  in  the  royal  families, 
why,  similarly,  can  not  weak  heredity  cause  high  infant  mortal- 
ity in  the  industrial  communities?  We  believe  it  does  account 
for  much  of  it,  and  that  the  inadequate  income  and  low  standard 
of  living  are  largely  the  consequences  of  inferior  heredity,  mental 
as  well  as  physical.  The  parents  in  the  Genealogical  Record 
Office  files  had,  many  of  them,  inadequate  incomes  and  low 
standards  of  living  under  frontier  conditions,  but  their  children 
grew  up  while  those  of  the  royal  families  were  dying  in  spite  of 
every  attention  that  wealth  could  command  and  science  could 
furnish. 

If  the  infant  mortality  problem  is  to  be  solved  on  the  basis  of 
knowledge  and  reason,  it  must  be  recognized  that  sanitation 
and  hygiene  can  not  take  the  place  of  eugenics  any  more  than 
eugenics  can  dispense  with  sanitation  and  hygiene.  It  must  be 
recognized  that  the  death-rate  in  childhood  is  largely  selective, 
and  that  the  most  effective  way  to  cut  it  down  is  to  endow  the 
children  with  better  constitutions.  This  can  not  be  done  solely 
by  any  euthenic  campaign;  it  can  not  be  done  by  swatting  the 
fly,  abolishing  the  midwife,  sterilizing  the  milk,  nor  by  any  of 
the  other  panaceas  sometimes  proposed. 

But,  it  may  be  objected,  this  discussion  ignores  the  actual 
facts.  Statistics  show  that  infant  mortality  campaigns  have 
consistently  produced  reductions  in  the  death-rate.  The  figures 
for  New  York,  which  could  be  matched  in  dozens  of  other  cities, 
show  that  the  number  of  deaths  per  i  ,000  births,  in  the  first  year 
of  life,  has  steadily  declined  since  a  determined  campaign  to 
"Save  the  Babies"  was  started; 

1902 181 

1903 152 

1904 162 

1905 159 

1906 153 

1907 144 

1908 128 

1909 129 


EUGENICS  AND  EUTHENICS  413 

1910 125 

1911 112 

1912 105 

1913 102 

1914 95 

To  one  who  can  not  see  beyond  the  immediate  consequences 
of  an  action,  such  figures  as  the  above  indeed  give  quite  a  differ- 
ent idea  of  the  effects  of  an  infant  mortality  campaign,  than  that 
which  we  have  just  tried  to  create.  And  it  is  a  great  misfortune 
that  euthenics  so  often  fails  to  look  beyond  the  immediate  effect, 
fails  to  see  what  may  happen  next  year,  or  10  years  from  now, 
or  in  the  next  generation. 

We  admit  that  it  is  possible  to  keep  a  lot  of  children  alive 
who  would  otherwise  have  died  in  the  first  few  months  of  Hfe. 
It  is  being  done,  as  the  New  York  figures,  and  pages  of  others 
that  could  be  cited,  prove.    The  ultimate  result  is  twofold: 

I.  Some  of  those  who  are  doomed  by  heredity  to  a  selective 
death,  but  are  kept  alive  through  the  first  year,  die  in  the  second 
or  third  or  fourth  year.  They  must  die  sooner  or  later;  they 
have  not  inherited  sufficient  resistance  to  survive  more  than  a 
limited  time.  If  they  are  by  a  great  effort  carried  through  the 
first  year,  it  is  only  to  die  in  the  next.  This  is  a  statement  which 
we  have  nowhere  observed  in  the  propaganda  of  the  infant 
mortality  movement;  and  it  is  perhaps  a  disconcerting  one.  It 
can  only  be  proved  by  refined  statistical  methods,  but  several 
independent  determinations  by  the  English  biometricians  leave 
no  doubt  as  to  the  fact.  This  work  of  Karl  Pearson,  E.  C.  Snow, 
and  Ethel  M.  Elderton,  was  cited  in  our  chapter  on  natural 
selection;  the  reader  will  recall  how  they  showed  that  nature  is 
weeding  out  the  weakhngs,  and  in  proportion  to  the  stringency 
with  which  she  weeds  them  out  at  the  start,  there  are  fewer 
weaklings  left  to  die  in  succeeding  years. 

To  put  the  facts  in  the  form  of  a  truism,  part  of  the  children 
born  in  any  district  in  a  given  year  are  doomed  by  heredity  to  an 
early  death;  and  if  they  die  in  one  year  they  will  not  be  alive 
to  die  in  the  succeeding  year,  and  vice  versa.  Of  course  there 
are  in  addition  infant  deaths  which  are  not  selective  and  which  if 


414  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

prevented  would  leave  the  infant  with  as  good  a  chance  as  any 
to  live. 

In  the  light  of  these  researches,  we  are  forced  to  conclude 
that  baby-saving  campaigns  accompUsh  less  than  is  thought; 
that  the  supposed  gain  is  to  some  extent  temporary  and 
illusory, 

2.  There  is  still  another  consequence.  If  the  gain  is  by  great 
exertions  made  more  than  temporary;  if  the  baby  who  would 
otherwise  have  died  in  the  first  months  is  brought  to  adult  life 
and  reproduction,  it  means  in  many  cases  the  dissemination 
of  another  strain  of  weak  heredity,  which  natural  selection  would 
have  cut  off  ruthlessly  in  the  interests  of  race  betterment.  In  so 
far,  then,  as  the  infant  mortality  movement  is  not  futile  it  is, 
from  a  strict  biological  viewpoint,  often  detrimental  to  the 
future  of  the  race. 

Do  we  then  discourage  all  attempts  to  save  the  babies?  Do 
we  leave  them  all  to  natural  selection?  Do  we  adopt  the  "better 
dead"  gospel? 

Unqualifiedly,  no!  The  sacrifice  of  the  finer  human  feelings, 
which  would  accompany  any  such  course,  would  be  a  greater 
loss  to  the  race  than  is  the  eugenic  loss  from  the  perpetuation 
of  weak  strains  of  heredity.  The  abolition  of  altruistic  and 
humanitarian  sentiment  for  the  purpose  of  race  betterment 
would  ultimately  defeat  its  own  end  by  making  race  better- 
ment impossible. 

But  race  betterment  will  also  be  impossible  unless  a  clear 
distinction  is  made  between  measures  that  really  mean  race 
betterment  of  a  fundamental  and  permanent  nature,  and  meas- 
ures which  do  not. 

We  have  chosen  the  Infant  Mortality  Movement  for  analysis 
in  this  chapter  because  it  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  kind  of 
social  betterment  which  is  taken  for  granted,  by  most  of  its 
proponents,  to  be  a  fundamental  piece  of  race  betterment;  but 
which,  as  a  fact,  often  means  race  impairment.  No  matter 
how  abundant  and  urgent  are  the  reasons  for  continuing  to 
reduce  infant  mortality  wherever  possible,  it  is  dangerous  to 
close  the  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  gain  from  it  is  of  a  kind  that 


EUGENICS  AND  EUTHENICS  415 

must  be  paid  for  in  other  ways;  that  to  carry  on  the  movement 
without  adding  eugenics  to  it  will  be  a  short-sighted  policy, 
which  increases  the  present  happiness  of  the  world  at  the  cost 
of  diminishing  the  happiness  of  posterity  through  the  perpetua- 
tion of  inferior  strains. 

While  some  euthenic  measures  are  eugenically  evils,  even  if 
necessary  ones,  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  all  euthenic  measures 
are  dysgenic.  Many  of  them,  such  as  the  economic  and  social 
changes  we  have  suggested  in  earlier  chapters,  are  an  important 
part  of  eugenics.  Every  euthenic  measure  should  be  scruti- 
nized from  the  evolutionary  standpoint;  if  it  is  eugenic  as  well 
as  euthenic,  it  should  be  whole-heartedly  favored;  if  it  is  dys- 
genic but  euthenic  it  should  be  condemned  or  adopted,  accord- 
ing to  whether  or  not  the  gain  in  all  ways  from  its  operation  will 
exceed  the  damage. 

In  general,  euthenics,  when  not  accompanied  by  some  form 
of  selection  (i.  e.,  eugenics)  ultimately  defeats  its  own  end.  If 
it  is  accompanied  by  rational  selection,  it  can  usually  be  in- 
dorsed. Eugenics,  on  the  other  hand,  is  likewise  inadequate 
unless  accompanied  by  constant  improvement  in  the  surround- 
ings; and  its  advocates  must  demand  euthenics  as  an  accompan- 
iment of  selection,  in  order  that  the  opportunity  for  getting  a 
fair  selection  may  be  as  free  as  possible.  If  the  euthenist  like- 
wise takes  pains  not  to  ignore  the  existence  of  the  racial  factor, 
then  the  two  schools  are  standing  on  the  same  ground,  and  it  is 
merely  a  matter  of  taste  or  opportunity,  whether  one  em- 
phasizes one  side  or  the  other.  Each  of  the  two  factions,  some- 
times thought  to  be  opposing,  will  be  seen  to  be  getting  the  same 
end  result,  namely,  human  progress. 

Not  only  are  the  two  schools  working  for  the  same  end,  but 
each  must  depend  in  still  another  way  upon  the  other,  in  order 
to  make  headway.  The  eugenist  can  not  see  his  measures  put 
into  effect  except  through  changes  in  law  and  custom — ^i.  e., 
euthenic  changes.  He  must  and  does  appeal  to  euthenics  to 
secure  action.  The  social  reformer,  on  the  other  hand,  can  not 
see  any  improvements  made  in  civilization  except  through  the 
discoveries  and  inventions  of  some  citizens  who  are  inherently 


4i6  APPLIED  EUGENICS 

superior  in  ability.  He  in  turn  must  depend  on  eugenics  for 
every  advance  that  is  made. 

It  may  make  the  situation  clearer  to  state  it  in  the  customary 
terms  of  biological  philosophy.  Selection  does  not  necessarily 
result  in  progressive  evolution.  It  merely  brings  about  the 
adaptation  of  a  species  or  a  group  to  a  given  environment.  The 
tapeworm  is  the  stock  example.  In  human  evolution,  the  nature 
of  this  environment  will  determine  whether  adaptation  to  it 
means  progress  or  retrogression,  whether  it  leaves  a  race  hap- 
pier and  more  productive,  or  the  reverse.  All  racial  progress, 
or  eugenics,  therefore,  depends  on  the  creation  of  a  good  environ- 
ment, and  the  fitting  of  the  race  to  that  environment.  Every 
improvement  in  the  environment  should  bring  about  a  cor- 
responding biological  adaptation.  The  two  factors  in  evolution 
must  go  side  by  side,  if  the  race  is  to  progress  in  what  the  human 
mind  considers  the  direction  of  advancement.  In  this  sense, 
euthenics  and  eugenics  bear  the  same  relation  to  human  prog- 
ress as  a  man's  two  legs  do  to  his  locomotion. 

Social  workers  in  purely  euthenic  fields  have  frequently  failed 
to  remember  this  process  of  adaptation,  in  their  efforts  to  change 
the  environment.  Eugenists,  in  centering  their  attention  on 
adaptation,  have  sometimes  paid  too  little  attention  to  the  kind 
of  environment  to  which  the  race  was  being  adapted.  The 
present  book  holds  that  the  second  factor  is  just  as  important 
as  the  first,  for  racial  progress;  that  one  leg  is  just  as  important 
as  the  other,  to  a  pedestrian.  Its  only  conflict  with  euthenics 
appertains  to  such  euthenic  measures  as  impair  the  adaptabil- 
ity of  the  race  to  the  better  environment  they  are  trying  to 
make. 

Some  supposedly  euthenic  measures  opposed  by  eugenics 
are  not  truly  euthenic,  as  for  instance  the  limitation  of  a  superior 
family  in  order  that  all  may  get  a  college  education.  For  these 
spurious  euthenic  measures,  something  truly  euthenic  should  be 
substituted. 

Measures  which  show  a  real  conflict  may  be  typified  by  the 
infant  mortality  movement.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that 
sanitation  and  hygiene,  prenatal    care   and  intelligent  treat- 


EUGENICS  AND  EUTHENICS  417 

ment  of  mothers  and  babies,  are  truly  euthenic  and  desirable. 
At  the  same  time,  as  has  been  shown,  these  euthenic  measures 
result  in  the  survival  of  inferior  children,  who  directly  or  through 
their  posterity  will  be  a  drag  on  the  race.  Euthenic  measures 
of  this  type  should  be  accompanied  by  counterbalancing  meas- 
ures of  a  more  eugenic  character. 

Barring  these  two  types,  euthenics  forms  a  necessary  con- 
comitant of  the  eugenic  program;  and,  as  we  have  tried  to  em- 
phasize, eugenics  is  likewise  necessary  to  the  complete  success 
of  every  euthenic  program.  How  foolish,  then,  is  antagonism 
between  the  two  forces!  Both  are  working  toward  the  same 
end  of  human  betterment,  and  neither  can  succeed  without  the 
other.  When  either  attempts  to  eliminate  the  other  from  its 
work,  it  ceases  to  advance  toward  its  goal.  In  which  camp  one 
works  is  largely  a  matter  of  taste.  If  on  a  road  there  is  a  gradient 
to  be  leveled,  it  will  be  brought  down  most  quickly  by  two  parties 
of  workmen,  one  cutting  away  at  the  top,  the  other  filUng  in  the 
bottom.  For  the  two  parties  to  indulge  in  mutual  scorn  and 
recrimination  would  be  no  more  absurd  than  for  eugenics  and 
euthenics  to  be  put  in  opposition  to  each  other.  The  only 
reason  they  have  been  in  opposition  is  because  some  of  the 
workers  did  not  clearly  understand  the  nature  of  their  work. 
With  the  dissemination  of  a  knowledge  of  biology,  this  ground 
of  antagonism  will  disappear. 


APPENDIX   A 

OVARIAN   TRANSPLANTATION 

In  1890,  W.  Heape  published  an  account  of  some  experiments  with 
rabbits.  Taking  the  fertilized  egg  of  an  angora  rabbit  (i.  e.,  a  long- 
haired, white  one)  from  the  oviduct  of  its  mother  previous  to  its  at- 
tachment to  the  wall  of  the  uterus,  he  transferred  it  to  the  uterus  of 
a  Belgian  hare,  a  rabbit  which  is  short-haired  and  gray.  The  egg  de- 
veloped normally  in  the  new  body  and  produced  an  animal  with  all 
the  characteristics,  as  far  as  could  be  seen,  of  the  real  mother,  rather 
than  the  foster-mother.  Its  coat  was  long  and  white,  and  there  was 
not  the  slightest  trace  of  influence  of  the  short,  gray-haired  doe  in 
whose  body  it  had  grown. 

Here  was  a  case  in  which  environment  certainl}'^  failed  to  show  any 
modifying  influence.  But  it  was  objected  that  the  transplanted  egg 
was  already  full-grown  and  fertilized  when  the  transfer  was  made, 
and  that  therefore  no  modification  need  be  expected.  If  the  egg  were 
transferred  at  an  earlier  stage,  it  was  thought,  the  result  might  be 
different. 

W.  E.  Castle  and  J.  C.  Phillips  therefore  undertook  an  experiment 
to  which  this  objection  should  not  be  possible.^ 

"A  female  albino  guinea-pig  just  attaining  sexual  maturity  was  by 
an  operation  deprived  of  its  ovaries,  and  instead  of  the  removed 
ovaries  there  were  introduced  into  her  body  the  ovaries  of  a  young 
black  female  guinea-pig,  not  yet  sexually  mature,  aged  about  three 
weeks.  The  grafted  animal  was  now  mated  with  a  male  albino  guinea- 
pig.  From  numerous  experiments  with  albino  guinea-pigs  it  may 
be  stated  emphatically  that  normal  albinos  mated  together,  without 
exception,  produce  only  albino  young,  and  the  presumption  is  strong, 
therefore,  that  had  this  female  not  been  operated  on  she  would  have 
done  the  same.  She  produced,  however,  by  the  albino  male  three 
litters  of  young,  which  together  consisted  of  six  individuals,  all  black. 
The  first  litter  of  young  was  produced  about  six  months  after  the 
operation,  the  last  about  one  year.  The  transplanted  ovarian  tissue 
must  have  remained  in  its  new  envirormient  therefore  from  four  to 
1  See  Castle,  W.  E.,  Heredity,  pp.  30-32,  New  York,  1911, 
419 


420  APPENDIX  A 

ten  months  before  the  eggs  attained  full  growth  and  were  discharged; 
ample  time,  it  would  seem,  for  the  influence  of  a  foreign  body  upon 
the  inheritance  to  show  itself  were  such  influence  possible." 

While  such  experiments  must  not  be  stretched  too  far,  in  applica- 
tion to  the  human  species,  they  certainly  offer  striking  evidence  of 
the  fact  that  the  characters  of  any  individual  are  mainly  due  to  some- 
thing in  the  germ-plasm,  and  that  this  germ-plasm  is  to  a  surprising 
degree  independent  of  any  outside  influence,  even  such  an  intimate 
influence  as  that  of  the  body  of  the  mother  in  which  it  reaches  ma- 
turity. 


APPENDIX  B 

"DYNAMIC  EVOLUTION" 

As  C.  L.  Redfield  has  secured  considerable  publicity  for  his  at- 
tempt to  bolster  up  the  Lamarckian  theory,  it  deserves  a  few  words 
of  comment.  His  contention  is  that  "the  energy  in  animals,  known 
as  intelligence  and  physical  strength,  is  identical  with  the  energy 
known  in  mechanics,  and  is  governed  by  the  same  laws."  He  there- 
fore concludes  that  (i)  an  animal  stores  up  energy  in  its  body,  in 
some  undescribed  and  mystical  way,  and  (2)  that  in  some  equally 
undescribed  and  mystical  way  it  transmits  this  stored-up  energy  to 
its  offspring.  It  follows  that  he  thinks  superior  offspring  are  pro- 
duced by  parents  of  advanced  age,  because  the  latter  have  had  more 
time  to  do  work  and  store  up  energy  for  transmission.  In  his  own 
words: 

"  Educating  the  grandfather  helps  to  make  the  grandson  a  superior 
person.  .  .  .  We  are,  in  our  inheritance,  exactly  what  our  ancestors 
made  us  by  the  work  they  performed  before  reproducing.  Whether 
our  descendants  are  to  be  better  or  worse  than  we  are  will  depend 
upon  the  amount  and  kind  of  work  we  do  before  we  produce  them." 

The  question  of  the  influence  of  parental  age  on  the  characters  of 
the  offspring  is  one  of  great  importance,  for  the  solution  of  which 
the  necessary  facts  have  not  yet  been  gathered  together.  The  data 
compiled  by  Mr.  Redfield  are  of  value,  but  his  interpretation  of  them 
can  not  be  accepted  for  the  following  reasons. 

I.  In  the  light  of  modem  psychology,  it  is  absurd  to  lump  all  sorts 
of  mental  abiUty  under  one  head,  and  to  suppose  that  the  father's 
exercise  of  reasoning  power,  for  example,  will  store  up  "energy"  to 
be  manifested  in  the  offspring  in  the  shape  of  executive  or  artistic 
abihty.  Mental  abilities  are  much  subdivided  and  are  inherited 
separately.    Mr.  Redfield's  idea  of  the  process  is  much  too  crude. 

Moreover,  Mr.  Redfield's  whole  conception  of  the  increase  of  in- 
telligence with  increase  of  age  in  a  parent  shows  a  disregard  of  the 
facts  of  psychology.  As  E.  A.  Doll  has  pointed  out,^  in  criticising 
Mr.  Redfield's  recent  and  extreme  claim  that  feeble-mindedness  is  the 
product  of  early  marriage,  it  is  incorrect  to  speak  of  20-,  30-,  or  40-year 

*  Doll,  E.  A.,  "Education  and  Inheritance,"  Journal  of  Education,  Feb.  i,  1917. 

421 


422  APPENDIX  B 

standards  of  intelligence;  for  recent  researches  in  measurement  of 
mental  development  indicate  that  the  heritable  standard  of  intelh- 
gence  of  adults  increases  very  little  beyond  the  age  of  approximately 
1 6  years.  A  person  40  years  old  has  an  additional  experience  of  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  so  has  a  larger  mental  content,  but  his  in- 
telligence is  still  nearly  at  the  16-year  level.  Mental  activity  is  the 
effect,  not  the  cause,  of  mental  growth  or  development.  Education 
merely  turns  inherent  mental  powers  to  good  account;  it  makes  very 
little  change  in  those  powers  themselves.  To  suppose  that  a  father 
can,  by  study,  raise  his  innate  level  of  intelligence  and  transmit  it 
at  the  new  level  to  his  son,  is  a  naive  idea  which  finds  no  warrant  in 
the  known  facts  of  mental  development. 

2.  In  his  entire  conception  of  the  storing-up  and  transmission  of 
energy,  Mr.  Redfield  has  fallen  victim  to  a  confusion  of  ideas  due  to 
the  use  of  the  same  word  to  mean  two  different  things.  He  thinks  of 
energy  as  an  engineer;  he  declares  the  body-cell  is  a  storage  battery; 
he  believes  that  the  athlete  by  performing  work  stores  up  energy  in 
his  body  (in  some  mysterious  and  unascertainable  way)  just  as  the 
clock  stores  up  energy  when  it  is  wound.  The  incorrectness  of  sup- 
posing that  the  so-called  energy  of  a  man  is  of  that  nature,  is  re- 
markable. If,  hearing  Bismarck  called  a  man  of  iron,  one  should 
analyze  his  remains  to  find  out  how  much  more  iron  he  contained 
than  ordinary  men,  it  would  be  a  performance  exactly  comparable 
to  Mr.  Redfield's,  when  he  thinks  of  a  man's  "energy"  as  something 
stored  up  by  work. 

As  a  fact,  a  man  contains  less  energy,  after  the  performance  of 
work,  than  he  did  at  the  start.  All  of  his  "energy"  comes  from  the 
metabohsm  of  food  that  he  has  previously  eaten.  His  potential 
energy  is  the  food  stored  up  in  his  body,  particularly  the  glycogen  in 
the  Uver  and  muscles.^ 

Why,  then,  can  one  man  run  faster  than  another?  Mr.  Redfield 
thinks  it  is  because  the  sprinter  has,  by  previous  work,  stored  up 
energy  in  his  body,  which  carries  him  over  the  course  more  rapidly 
than  the  sluggard  who  has  not  been  subjected  to  systematic  training. 
But  the  differences  in  men's  abiUty  are  not  due  to  the  amount  of 
energy  they  have  stored  up.  It  is  due  rather  to  differences  in  their 
structure  (using  this  word  in  a  very  broad  sense),  which  produce  dif- 

^  Atwater's  celebrated  experiments  proved  that  all  the  energy  (food)  which  goes 
into  an  animal  can  be  accounted  for  in  the  output  of  heat  or  work.  They  are  con- 
veniently summarized  in  Abderhalden's  Texl-book  0/  Phsyiological  Chemistry,  p.  335. 


APPENDIX  B  423 

ferences  in  the  efficiency  with  which  they  can  use  the  stored-up 
energy  (i.  e.,  food)  in  their  bodies.  A  fat  Shorthorn  bull  contains 
much  more  stored-up  energy  than  does  a  race  horse,  but  the  latter 
has  the  better  structure — coordination  of  muscles  with  nervous 
system,  in  particular — and  there  is  never  any  doubt  about  how  a 
race  between  the  two  will  end.  The  difference  between  the  results 
achieved  by  a  highly  educated  thinker  and  a  low-grade  moron  are 
similarly  differences  in  structural  efficiency:  the  moron  may  eat  much 
more,  and  thereby  have  more  jwtential  energy,  than  the  scholar;  but 
the  machine,  the  brain,  can  not  utilize  it. 

The  effects  of  training  are  not  to  store  up  energy  in  the  body,  for 
it  has  been  proved  that  work  decreases  rather  than  increases  the 
amount  of  energy  in  the  body.  How  is  it,  then,  that  training  increases 
a  man's  efficiency?  It  is  obviously  by  improving  his  "structure," 
and  probably  the  most  important  part  of  this  improvement  is  in 
bring  about  better  relations  between  the  muscles  and  the  nerves. 
To  pursue  the  analogy  which  Mr.  Redfield  so  often  misuses,  the  effect 
of  training  on  the  human  machine  is  merely  to  oil  the  bearings  and 
straighten  out  bent  parts,  to  make  it  a  more  efficient  transformer  of 
the  energy  that  is  supplied  to  it. 

The  foundation  stone  of  Mr.  Redfield's  hypothesis  is  his  idea  that 
the  animal  by  working  stores  up  energy.  This  idea  is  the  exact  reverse 
of  the  truth.  While  the  facts  which  Mr.  Redfield  has  gathered  deserve 
much  study,  his  idea  of  "Dynamic  Evolution"  need  not  be  taken 
seriously.^ 

1  In  this  connection  see  farther  Raymond  Pearl's  review  of  Mr.  Redfield's  "Dy- 
namic Evolution"  (Journal  of  Heredity,  VI,  p.  254),  and  Paul  Popenoe's  review, 
"The  Parents  of  Great  Men,"  Journal  of  Heredity,  VIII,  pp.  4cx>-4o8. 


APPENDIX  C 

THE  "MELTING  POT" 

America  as  the  "Melting  Pot"  of  peoples  is  a  picture  often  drawn 
by  writers  who  do  not  trouble  themselves  as  to  the  precision  of  their 
figures  of  speech.  It  has  been  supposed  by  many  that  all  the  racial 
stocks  in  the  United  States  were  tending  toward  a  uniform  type. 
There  has  never  been  any  real  evidence  on  which  to  base  such  a  view, 
and  the  study  completed  in  1917  by  Dr.  Ales  Hrdlicka,  curator  of 
the  division  of  physical  anthropology  of  the  U.  S.  National  Museum, 
furnishes  evidence  against  it.  He  examined  400  individuals  of  the 
Old  White  American  stock,  that  is,  persons  all  of  whose  ancestors 
had  been  in  the  United  States  as  far  as  the  fourth  ascending  genera- 
tion. He  found  little  or  no  evidence  that  hereditary  traits  had  been 
altered.  Even  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  the  Virginia 
cavaliers,  the  Pennsylvania  Dutch  and  the  Huguenots,  while  possibly 
not  as  much  unlike  as  their  ancestors  were,  are  in  no  sense  a  blend. 

The  "Melting  Pot,"  it  must  be  concluded,  is  a  figure  of  speech;  and 
as  far  as  physical  anthropology  is  concerned,  it  will  not  be  anything 
more  in  this  country,  at  least  for  many  centuries. 

Announcing  the  results  of  study  of  the  first  100  males  and  100 
females  of  his  series, ^  Dr.  Hrdlicka  said,  "The  most  striking  result  of 
the  examinations  is  the  great  range  of  variation  among  Old  Americans 
in  nearly  all  the  important  measurements.  The  range  of  variation 
is  such  that  in  some  of  the  most  significant  determinations  it  equals 
not  only  the  variation  of  any  one  group,  but  the  combined  variations 
of  all  the  groups  that  enter  into  the  composition  of  the  Americans." 
This  fact  would  be  interpreted  by  the  geneticist  as  an  evidence  of 
hybridity.  It  is  clear  that,  at  the  very  beginning,  a  number  of  diverse, 
although  not  widely  differing,  stocks  must  have  made  up  the  colonial 
population;  and  intermarriage  and  the  influence  of  the  environment 
have  not  welded  these  stocks  into  one  blend,  but  have  merely  pro- 
duced a  mosaic-like  mixture.    This  is  good  evidence  of  the  perma- 

^  See  Dr.  Hrdlifcka's  communication  to  the  XlXth  International  Congress  of 
Americanists,  Dec.  28,  igis  (the  proceedings  were  pubhshed  at  Washington,  in 
March,  1917);  or  an  account  in  the  Journal  of  Heredity,  VIII,  pp.  98  ff.,  March,  1917. 

424 


APPENDIX  C 


425 


nence  of  inherited  traits,  although  it  must  be  qualified  by  the  state- 
ment that  it  does  not  apply  equally  to  all  features  of  the  body,  the 
face,  hands  and  feet  having  been  found  less  variable,  for  instance, 
than  stature  and  form  of  head. 


THE  "MEAN  MAN"  OF  THE  OLD  WHITE 
AMERICAN  STOCK 

Fig.  45. — AnthrofHjlogists  have  an  ideal  "mean  man," 
whose  every  feature  measures  the  arithmetic  mean  or 
average  of  that  feature  in  all  the  individuals  of  his  race. 
The  above  diagram  drawn  to  scale  from  Dr.  Hrdlicka's 
measurements  represents  the  mean  man  of  Colonial  an- 
cestry. The  outline  of  the  face  is  almost  oblong;  the 
head  is  high  and  well-developed,  particularly  in  the 
regions  which  are  popularly  supposed  to  denote  sup)erior 
intelligence.  In  general,  it  is  a  highly  specialized  type, 
denoting  an  advanced  evolution. 


The  stature  of  both  American  men  and  women  is  high,  higher  than 
the  average  of  any  European  nation  except  the  Scotch.  The  indi- 
vidual variation  is,  however,  enormous,  amounting  to  16.4%  of  the 
average  in  males  and  nearly  16%  in  females.    For  males,  174  cm.  is 


426  APPENDIX  C 

the  average  height,  for  females  162.  The  arm  spread  in  males  is 
greater  than  their  stature,  in  females  it  is  less. 

The  average  weight  of  the  males  is  154  lbs.  of  the  females  130. 
Taking  into  consideration  the  tall  stature,  these  weights  are  about 
equal  to  those  among  Europeans. 

The  general  proportions  of  the  body  must  be  classed  as  medium, 
but  great  fluctuations  are  shown. 

The  face  is,  in  general,  high  and  oval;  in  females  it  occasionally 
gives  the  impression  of  narrowness.  The  forehead  is  well  developed 
in  both  sexes.  The  nose  is  prevalently  long  and  of  medium  breadth, 
its  propgrtions  being  practically  identical  with  those  of  the  modem 
Enghsh.  The  ears  are  longer  than  those  of  any  modem  immigrants 
except  the  English.  The  mouth  shows  medium  breadth  in  both 
sexes,  and  its  averages  exactly  equal  those  obtained  for  modern 
French. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  results  is  that  there  were  obtained 
among  these  first  200  individuals  studied  no  pronounced  blonds,  al- 
though the  ancestry  is  North  European,  where  blondness  is  more  or 
less  prevalent.^    The  exact  distribution  is: 

Male  Female 

Light-brown 12%  16% 

Medium-brown  to  dark 77  68 

Very  dark 11  6 

Golden-red  and  red o  10 

Dr.  Hrdlicka's  classification  of  the  eye  is  as  follows: 

Male  Female 

Gray 2%  4% 

Greenish 7  10 

Blues 54  50 

Browns 37  36 

The  head  among  Old  Americans  is  in  many  cases  notable  for  its 
good  development,  particularly  in  males.    Among  12  groups  of  male 

^  Cf.  Grant,  Madison,  The  Passing  of  lite  Great  Race,  p.  74  (New  York,  1916): 
"One  often  hears  the  statement  made  that  native  Americans  of  Colonial  ancestry 
are  of  mixed  ethnic  origin.  This  is  not  true.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolutionary 
War  the  settlers  in  the  13  colonies  were  not  only  purely  Nordic,  but  also  purely 
Teutonic,  a  very  large  majority  being  Anglo-Saxon  in  the  most  limited  meaning 
of  that  term.  The  New  England  settlers  in  particular  came  from  those  counties 
in  England  where  the  blood  was  almost  purely  Saxon,  .'\nglian,  and  Dane." 


APPENDIX  C  427 

immigrants  '  measured  at  Ellis  Island  under  Dr.  Hrdlicka's  direction 
in  recent  years,  not  one  group  quite  equals  in  this  respect  the  Amer- 
icans, the  nearest  approach  being  noted  in  the  Irish,  Bohemians, 
English,  Poles,  and  North  Italians.  The  type  of  head,  however, 
differs  among  the  Americans  very  widely,  as  is  the  case  with  most 
civilized  races  at  the  present  day. 

Head  form  is  most  conveniently  expressed  by  means  of  the  cephalic 
index,  that  is,  the  ratio  of  breadth  to  length.  Anthropologists  gener- 
ally speak  of  any  one  with  an  index  of  75  (or  where  the  breadth  is 
75%  of  the  length)  and  below  this  as  dolichocephalic,  or  long-headed; 
from  75  to  80  is  the  class  of  the  mesocephalic,  intermediates;  while 
above  80  is  that  of  the  subbrachycephalic  and  brachycephahc,  or 
round-headed.  For  the  most  part,  the  Old  Americans  fall  into  the 
intermediate  class,  the  average  index  of  males  being  78.3  and  that 
of  females  79.5. 

Barring  a  few  French  Huguenots,  the  Old  Americans  considered 
here  are  mostly  of  British  ancestry,  and  their  head  form  corresponds 
rather  closely  to  that  of  the  English  of  the  present  day.  In  England, 
as  is  well  known,  the  round-headed  type  of  Central  and  Eastern 
Europe,  the  Alpine  or  Cel to-Slav  type,  has  few  representatives.  The 
population  is  composed  principally  of  long-headed  peoples,  deriving 
from  the  two  great  European  stocks,  the  Nordic  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean. To  the  latter  the  frequency  of  dark  hair  and  brown  eyes 
is  probably  due,  both  in  England  and  America. 

While  the  average  of  the  Old  Americans  corresponds  closely  to 
the  average  of  the  English,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  variation  in  both 
countries.  Unfortunately,  it  is  impossible  to  compare  the  present 
Americans  with  their  ancestors,  because  measurements  of  the  latter 
are  lacking.  But  to  assume  that  the  early  colonists  did  not  differ 
greatly  from  the  modern  English  is  probably  justifiable.  A  com- 
parison of  modem  Americans  (of  the  old  white  stock)  with  modem 
English  should  give  basis  for  an  opinion  as  to  whether  the  English 
stock  underwent  any  marked  modifications,  on  coming  to  a  new 
environment. 

It  has  already  been  noted  that  the  average  cephalic  index  is  prac- 
tically the  same;  the  only  possibility  of  a  change  then  lies  in  the 
amount  of  variability.    Is  the  American  stock  more  or  less  variable? 

^  Comprising  Armenians,  Croatians,  English,  Greeks,  Russian  Jews,  Irish,  South 
Italians,  North  Italians,  Magyars,  Poles,  Rumanians  and  Russians,  500  individuals 
in  all. 


428  APPENDIX  C 

Can  a  "melting  pot"  influence  be  seen,  tending  to  produce  homo- 
geneity, or  has  change  of  environment  rather  produced  greater  varia- 
bility, as  is  sometimes  said  to  be  the  case? 

The  amount  of  variability  is  most  conveniently  measured  by  a 

coefficient  knowTi  as  the  standard  deviation  (a),  which  is  small  when 

the  range  of  variation  is  small,  but  large  when  diversity  of  material 

is  great.    The  following  comparisons  of  the  point  at  issue  may  be 

,made.^ 

Avg.  (T 

IOC  American  men 78 . 3  3.1 

loii  Cambridge  graduates  (English  males).  ..79.85  2.95 

For  the  men,  little  difference  is  discernible.  The  Old  Americans  are 
slightly  more  long-headed  than  the  English,  but  the  amount  of  varia- 
tion in  this  trait  is  nearly  the  same  on  the  two  sides  of  the  ocean. 

The  average  of  the  American  women  is  79.5  with  a  =  2.6.  No 
suitable  series  of  English  women  has  been  found  for  comparison.^ 
It  will  be  noted  that  the  American  women  are  slightly  more  round- 
headed  than  the  men;  this  is  found  regularly  to  be  the  case,  when 
comparisons  of  the  head  form  of  the  two  sexes  are  made  in  any  race. 

In  addition  to  establishing  norms  or  standards  for  anthropological 
comparison,  the  main  object  of  Dr.  Hrdlicka's  study  was  to  deter- 
mine whether  the  descendants  of  the  early  American  settlers,  living 
in  a  new  environment  and  more  or  less  constantly  intermarrying, 
were  being  amalgamated  into  a  distinct  sub-type  of  the  white  race. 
It  has  been  found  that  such  amalgamation  has  not  taken  place  to 
any  important  degree.  The  persistence  in  heredity  of  certain  features, 
which  run  down  even  through  six  or  eight  generations,  is  one  of  the 
remarkable  results  brought  out  by  the  study. 

If  the  process  could  continue  for  a  few  hundred  years  more.  Dr. 
Hrdlicka  thinks,  it  might  reach  a  point  where  one  could  speak  of  the 
members  of'old  American  families  as  of  a  distinct  stock.  But  so  far 
this  point  has  not  been  reached;  the  Americans  are  almost  as  diverse 
and  variable,  it  appears,  as  were  their  first  ancestors  in  this  country. 

1  English  data  from  K.  Pearson,  Biometrika  V,  p.  124. 

*  Pearson  (ubi  supra)  measured  12-year-old  English  school  children,  and  found 
the  average  cephalic  index  for  2298  boys  to  be  78.88,  with  (r=.5.2,  for  2188  girls 
78.43,  with  (X  =3.9.    It  is  not  proper  to  compare  adolescents  with  adults,  however. 


APPENDIX  D 
THE  ESSENCE  OF  MENDELISM 

It  is  half  a  century  since  the  Austrian  monk,  Gregor  Mendel,  pub- 
lished in  a  provincial  journal  the  results  of  his  now  famous  breeding 
experiments  with  garden  peas.  They  lay  unnoticed  until  1900,  when 
three  other  breeders  whose  work  had  led  them  to  similar  conclusions, 
almost  simultaneously  discovered  the  work  of  Mendel  and  gave  it 
to  the  world. 

Breeding  along  the  lines  marked  out  by  Mendel  at  once  became 
the  most  popular  method  of  attack,  among  those  who  were  studying 
heredity.  It  became  an  extremely  complicated  subject,  which  can  not 
be  grasped  without  extended  study,  but  its  fundamentals  can  be 
briefly  sununarized. 

Inherited  differences  in  individuals,  it  will  be  admitted,  are  due  to 
differences  in  their  germ-plasms.  It  is  convenient  to  think  of  these 
differences  in  germ-plasms  (that  is,  differences  in  heredity)  as  being 
due  to  the  presence  in  the  germ-plasm  of  certain  hypothetical  units, 
which  are  usually  referred  to  as  factors.  The  factor,  nowadays,  is  the 
ultimate  unit  of  Mendelian  research.  Each  of  these  factors  is  con- 
sidered to  be  nearly  or  quite  constant, — that  is,  it  undergoes  little, 
or  no  change  from  generation  to  generation.  It  is  ordinarily  resistant 
to  "contamination"  by  other  factors  with  which  it  may  come  in 
contact  Lq  the  cell.  The  first  fundamental  principle  of  MendeUsm, 
then,  is  the  existence  of  relatively  constant  units,  the  Mendehan 
factors,  as  the  basis  for  transmission  of  all  the  traits  that  go  to  make 
up  an  animal  or  plant. 

Experimental  breeding  gives  reason  to  believe  that  each  factor 
has  one  or  more  alternatives,  which  may  take  its  place  in  the  mech- 
anism of  heredity,  thereby  changing  the  visible  character  of  the 
individual  plant  or  animal  in  which  it  occurs.  To  put  the  matter  a 
little  differently,  one  germ-ceU  differs  from  another  in  having  alterna- 
tives present  in  place  of  some  of  the  factors  of  the  latter.  ■  A  given 
germ-cell  can  never  have  more  than  one  of  the  possible  alternatives 
of  each  factor.  These  alternatives  of  a  factor  are  called  its  alle- 
lomorphs. 

429 


430  APPENDIX  D 

Now  a  mature  germ-cell  has  a  single  system  of  these  factors:  but 
when  two  germ-cells  unite,  there  result  from  that  union  two  kinds  of 
cells — ^namely,  inunature  germ-cells  and  body-cells;  and  both  these 
kinds  of  cells  contain  a  double  system  of  factors,  because  of  course 
they  have  received  a  single  entire  system  from  each  parent.  This 
is  the  second  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  Mendelism:  that  the 
factors  are  single  in  the  mature  germ-cell,  but  in  duplicate  in  the 
body-cell  (and  also  in  the  immature  germ-cell). 

In  every  cell  with  a  double  system  of  factors,  there  are  necessarily 
present  two  representatives  from  each  set  of  allelomorphs,  but  these 
may  or  may  not  be  alike — or  in  technical  language  the  individual 
may  be  homozygous,  or  heterozygous,  as  regards  the  given  set  of 
alternative  factors.  Looking  at  it  from  another  angle,  there  is  a 
single  visible  character  in  the  plant  or  animal,  but  it  is  produced  by 
a  double  factor,  in  the  germ-plasm. 

When  the  immature  germ-cell,  with  its  double  system  of  factors, 
matures,  it  throws  out  half  the  factors,  retaining  only  a  single  system: 
and  the  allelomorphic  factors  which  then  segregate  into  different 
cells  are,  as  has  been  said  above,  ordinarily  uninfluenced  by  their  stay 
together. 

But  the  allelomorphic  factors  are  not  the  only  ones  which  are 
segregated  into  different  germ-cells,  at  the  maturation  of  the  cell; 
for  the  factors  which  are  not  alternative  are  likewise  distributed, 
more  or  less  independently  of  each  other,  so  that  it  is  largely  a  matter 
of  chance  whether  factors  which  enter  a  cross  in  the  same  germ-cell, 
segregate  into  the  same  germ-cell  or  different  ones,  in  the  next  genera- 
tion. This  is  the  next  fundamental  principle  of  Mendelism,  usually 
comprehended  under  the  term  "segregation,"  although,  as  has  been 
pointed  out,  it  is  really  a  double  process,  the  segregation  of  alternative 
factors  being  a  different  thing  from  the  segregation  of  non-alternative 
factors. 

From  this  fact  of  segregation,  it  follows  that  as  many  kinds  of 
germ-cells  can  be  formed  by  an  individual,  as  there  are  possible  com- 
binations of  factors,  on  taking  one  alternative  from  each  pair  of 
allelomorphs  present.  In  practice,  this  means  that  the  possible 
number  of  different  germ-cells  is  almost  infinitely  great,  as  would 
perhaps  be  suspected  by  anyone  who  has  tried  to  find  two  living 
things  that  are  just  alike. 

Such  is  the  essence  of  Mendelism;  and  the  reader  is  probably  ready 
to  admit  that  it  is  not  a  simple  matter,  even  when  reduced  to  the 


THE  CARRIERS  OF  HEREDITY 
Fig.  46. — Many  different  lines  of  study  have  made  it  seem  probable  that  much,  al- 
though not  all,  of  the  heredity  of  an  animal  or  plant  is  carried  in  the  nucleus  of  the 
germ-cell  and  that  in  this  nucleus  it  is  further  located  in  little  rods  or  threads  which 
can  be  easily  stained  so  as  to  become  visible,  and  which  have  the  name  of  chro- 
mosomes. In  the  above  illustration  four  different  views  of  the  nucleus  of  the  germ-cell 
of  an  earthworm  are  shown,  with  the  chromosomes  in  different  stages;  in  section  19 
each  chromosome  is  doubled  up  like  a  hairpin.  Study  of  the  fruit-fly  Drosophila  has 
made  it  seem  probable  not  only  that  the  hypothetical  factors  of  heredity  are  located 
in  the  chromosomes,  but  that  each  factor  has  a  perfectly  definite  location  in  its  chro- 
mosome; and  T.  H.  Morgan  and  his  associates  have  worked  out  an  ingenious  method 
of  measuring  the  distance  from  either  end,  at  which  the  factor  lies.  Photomicrograph 
after  Foot  and  Strobell. 


APPENDIX  D  431 

simplest  terms.    To  sum  up,  the  principal  features  at  the  base  of  the 
hypothetical  structure  are  these: 

1.  There  exist  relatively  constant  units  in  the  germ-plasm. 

2.  There  are  two  very  distinct  relationships  which  these  units 
may  show  to  each  other.  Two  (or  more)  unit  factors  may  be  alterna- 
tives in  the  mechanism  of  inheritance,  indicating  that  one  is  a  varia- 
tion (or  loss)  of  the  other;  or  they  may  be  independent  of  each  other 
in  the  mechanism  of  inheritance. 

3.  The  mature  germ-cell  contains  a  single  system  of  independent 
factors  (one  representative  from  each  set  of  alternates). 

The  immature  germ-cells,  and  body-cells,  have  double  systems  of 
independent  factors  (two  from  each  set  of  alternatives). 

4.  The  double  system  arises  simply  from  the  union  of  two  single 
systems  (i.  e.,  two  germ-cells),  without  union  or  even  contamination 
of  the  factors  involved. 

In  the  formation  of  a  single  system  (mature  germ-ceUs)  from  a 
double  (immature  germ-cells),  pairs  of  alternates  separate,  passing 
into  different  germ-cells.  Factors  not  alternates  may  or  may  not 
separate — the  distribution  is  largely  a  matter  of  chance. 

Such  are  the  fundamental  principles  of  Mendelism;  but  on  them 
was  early  grafted  a  theoretical  structure  due  mainly  to  the  German 
zoologist,  August  Weismann.  To  understand  his  part  in  the  story, 
we  must  advert  to  that  much  mooted  and  too  often  misunderstood 
problem  furnished  by  the  chromosomes.  (See  Fig.  46.)  These  little 
rods  of  easUy  stained  material,  which  are  found  in  every  cell  of  the 
body,  were  picked  out  by  Professor  Weismann  as  the  probable  carriers 
of  heredity.  With  remarkable  acuteness,  he  predicted  their  be- 
havior at  cell-division,  the  intricate  nature  of  which  is  usually  the 
despair  of  every  beginner  in  biology.  When  Mendehan  breeding,  in 
the  early  years  of  this  century,  showed  temporary  pairing  and  subse- 
quent separation  of  units  in  the  germ-cell,  it  was  soon  realized  that 
the  observed  facts  of  breeding  fitted  to  a  nicety  the  observed  facts 
(predicted  by  Weismann)  of  chromosome-behavior;  for  at  each  cell- 
division  the  chromosomes,  too,  pair  and  separate  again.  The  observed 
behavior  of  transmitted  characters  in  animals  and  plants  followed, 
in  so  many  cases,  the  observed  behavior  of  the  chromosomes,  that 
many  students  found  it  almost  impossible  to  believe  that  there  was 
no  connection  between  the  two,  and  Dr.  Weismann's  prediction,  that 
the  chromosomes  are  the  carriers  of  heredity,  came  to  be  looked  on 
as  a  fact,  by  many  biologists. 


432  APPENDIX  D 

But  when  so  much  of  Professor  Weismann's  system  was  accepted, 
other  parts  of  it  went  along,  including  a  hypothetical  system  of  "de- 
terminers" in  the  chromosome,  which  were  believed  to  determine 
the  development  of  characters  in  the  organism.  Every  trait  of  an 
animal  or  plant,  it  was  supposed,  must  be  represented  in  the  germ- 
plasm  by  its  own  determiner;  one  trait,  one  determiner.  Did  a  notch 
in  the  ear  run  through  a  pedigree?  Then  it  must  be  due  to  a  deter- 
miner for  a  notch  in  the  ear  in  the  germ-plasm.  Was  mathematical 
ability  hereditary?  Then  there  must  be  a  determiner,  the  expression 
of  which  was  mathematical  ability. 

For  a  while,  this  hyp)othesis  was  of  service  in  the  development  of 
genetics;  some  students  even  began  to  forget  that  it  was  a  hypothesis, 
and  to  talk  as  if  it  were  a  fact.  But  the  exhaustive  tests  of  experi- 
mental breeding  of  plants  and  animals  have  long  caused  most  of  the 
advanced  students  of  genetics  to  drop  this  simple  hypothesis. 

In  its  place  stands  the  factorial  hypothesis,  evolved  by  workers  in 
America,  England,  and  France  at  about  the  same  time.  As  explained 
in  Chapter  V,  this  hypothesis  carries  the  assumption  that  every 
visible  character  is  due  to  the  effects  of  not  one  but  many  factors  in 
the  germ-cell. 

In  addition  to  these  fundamentals,  there  are  numerous  extensions 
and  corollaries,  some  of  them  of  a  highly  speculative  nature.  The 
reader  who  is  interested  in  pursuing  the  subject  farther  must  turn  to 
one  of  the  text-books  on  Mendelism. 

In  plant-breeding  a  good  deal  of  progress  has  been  made  in  the 
exact  study  of  Mendelian  heredity;  in  animal  breeding,  somewhat 
less;  in  human  heredity,  very  little.  The  reason  is  obvious:  that  ex- 
periments can  not  be  made  in  man,  and  students  must  depend  on 
the  results  of  such  matings  as  they  can  find;  that  only  a  very  few 
offspring  result  from  each  mating;  and  that  generations  are  so  long 
that  no  one  observer  can  have  more  than  a  few  under  his  eyes.  These 
difficulties  make  Mendelian  research  in  man  a  very  slow  and  un- 
certain matter. 

Altogether,  it  is  probable  that  something  like  a  hundred  characters 
in  man  have  been  pointed  out  as  inherited  in  Mendelian  fashion.  A 
large  part  of  these  are  pathological  conditions  or  rare  abnormahties. 

But  the  present  writers  can  not  accept  most  of  these  cases.  It  has 
been  pointed  out  in  Chapter  V  that  there  are  good  reasons  for  doubt- 
ing that  feeble-mindedness  is  inherited  in  a  simple  Mendelian  fashion, 
although  it  is  widely  accepted  as  such.    We  can  not  help  feeling  that 


APPENDIX  D  433 

in  most  cases  heredity  in  man  is  being  made  to  appear  much  simpler 
than  it  really  is;  and  that  particularly  in  mental  characters,  analysis 
of  traits  has  by  no  means  reached  the  bottom. 

If  we  were  asked  to  make  out  a  list  of  characters,  as  to  the  Men- 
delian  inheritance  of  which  there  could  be  little  doubt,  we  would 
hardly  be  able  to  go  farther  than  the  following: 

The  sex-linked  characters  (one  kind  of  color-blindness,  hemophilia, 
one  kind  of  night-blindness,  atrophy  of  the  optic  nerve,  and  a  few 
other  rare  abnormalities). 

Albinism.  This  appears  to  be  a  recessive,  but  probably  involves 
multiple  allelomorphs  in  man,  as  in  other  animals. 

Brachydactyly,  apparently  a  dominant.  This  is  so  much  cited 
in  text-books  on  MendeUsm  that  the  student  might  think  it  is  a 
common  character.  As  a  fact,  it  is  extremely  rare,  being  found  in 
only  a  few  families.  The  similar  trait  of  orthodactyly  or  sympha- 
langism, which  likewise  appears  to  be  a  good  MendeUan  dominant, 
seems  to  exist  in  only  one  family.  Traits  Hke  these,  which  are  easily 
defined  and  occur  very  rarely,  make  up  a  large  part  of  the  cases  of 
probably  Mendelian  heredity.  They  are  little  more  than  curiosities, 
their  rarity  and  abnormal  nature  depriving  them  of  evolutionary 
significance  other  than  to  demonstrate  that  Mendelian  heredity  does 
operate  in  man. 

White  blaze  in  the  hair  or,  as  it  might  better  be  called  to  show  its 
resemblance  to  the  trait  found  in  other  mammals,  piebaldism.  A 
rather  rare  dominant.^ 

Huntington's  Chorea,  which  usually  appears  to  be  a  good  dominant, 
although  the  last  investigators  (Muncey  and  Davenport)  found  some 
unconformable  cases. 

A  few  abnormalities,  such  as  a  premature  graying  of  the  hair  (one 
family  cited  by  K.  Pearson)  are  well  enough  attested  to  be  admitted. 
Many  others,  such  as  baldness,  are  probably  Mendehan  but  not  yet 
sufficiently  supported  by  evidence. 

None  of  these  characters,  it  will  be  observed,  is  of  much  significance 
eugenically.  If  the  exact  manner  of  inheritance  of  some  of  the  more 
important  mental  and  physical  traits  were  known,  it  would  be  of 

^  Sewall  Wright  has  pointed  out  {Journal  of  Heredity,  VIII,  p.  376)  that  the  white 
blaze  in  the  hair  can  not  be  finally  classed  as  dominant  or  recessive  until  the  progeny 
of  two  affected  persons  have  been  seen.  All  matings  so  far  studied  have  been  be- 
tween an  affected  person  and  a  normal.  It  may  be  that  the  white  blaze  (or  pie- 
baldism) represents  merely  a  heterozygous  condition,  and  that  the  trait  is  really  a 
recessive.   The  same  argument  applies  to  brachydactyly. 


434  APPENDIX  D 

value.    But  it  is  not  a  prerequisite  for  eugenic  action.      Enough  is 
known  for  a  working  program. 

To  sum  up:  the  features  in  the  modem  view  of  heredity,  which 
the  reader  must  keep  in  mind,  are  the  following: 

1.  That  the  various  characters  which  make  up  the  physical  con- 
stitution of  any  individual  plant  or  animal  are  due  to  the  action 
(concurrently  with  the  environment,  of  course)  of  what  are  called, 
for  convenience,  factors,  separable  hypothetical  units  in  the  germ- 
plasm,  capable  of  independent  transmission. 

2.  That  each  visible  character  is  due  to  the  cooperative  action  of 
an  indefinitely  large  number  of  factors;  conversely,  that  each  of  these 
factors  affects  an  indefinitely  large  number  of  characters. 


APPENDIX  E 

USEFUL  WORKS  OF  REFERENCE 

The  most  complete  bibliography  is  that  published  by  the  State 
Board  of  Charities  of  the  State  of  New  York  (Eugenics  and  Social 
Welfare  Bulletin  No.  Ill,  pp.  130,  Albany,  1913). 

An  interesting  historical  review  of  eugenics,  with  critical  com- 
ments on  the  Uterature  and  a  bibliography  of  100  titles,  was  published 
by  A.  E.  Hamilton  in  the  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  XXI,  pp.  28-61, 
March,  19 14. 

Much  of  the  important  Uterature  of  eugenics  has  been  mentioned 
in  footnotes.  For  convenience,  a  few  of  the  books  which  are  Ukely 
to  be  most  useful  to  the  student  are  here  hsted: 

Genetics  and  Eugenics,  by  W.  E.  Castle.  Harvard  University 
Press,  Cambridge,  19 16. 

Heredity  and  Environment  in  the  Development  of  Men,  by 
Edwin  G.  ConkJin.  ~  Princeton  University  Press,  1915. 

Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics,  by  C.  B.  Davenport,  Henry 
Holt  and  Co.,  New  York,  191 1. 

Essays  in  Eugenics,  by  Francis  Galton.  Eugenics  Education 
Society,  London,  1909. 

Being  Well-Born,  by  Michael  F.  Guyer.  IndianapoUs,  Bobbs- 
Merrill  Co.,  1916. 

The  Social  Direction  of  Human  Evolution,  by  W.  E.  Keilicott. 
New  York,  191 1. 

The  Physical  Basis  of  Society,  by  Carl  Kelsey.  New  York, 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  19 16. 

Eugenics,  by  Edward  Schuster.  Collins'  Clear  Type  Press,  Lon- 
don and  Glasgow,  19 13. 

Heredity,  by  J.  Arthur  Thompson.    Edinburgh,  1908. 

Genetics,  by  Herbert  E.  Walter.    The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York, 

1913- 

An  Introduction  to  Eugenics,  by  W.  C.  D.  Whetham  and  C.  D. 
Whetham.    MacmiUan  and  Co.,  London,  19 12. 

Heredity  and  Society,  by  W.  C.  D.  Whetham  and  C.  D. 
Whetham.     Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  London,  1912. 

435 


436  APPENDIX  E     ■ 

The  Family  and  the  Nation,  by  W.  C.  D.  Whetham  and  C.  D. 
Whetham.    Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  London,  igog. 

The  publications  of  the  Gallon  Laboratory  of  National  Eugenics, 
University  of  London,  directed  by  Karl  Pearson,  and  of  the  Eugenics 
Record  Office,  Cold  Spring  Harbor,  Long  Island,  N.  Y.,  directed  by 
C.  B.  Davenport,  furnish  a  constantly  increasing  amount  of  original 
material  on  heredity. 

The  principal  i>eriodicals  are  the  Journal  of  Heredity  (organ  of  the 
American  Genetic  Association),  511  Eleventh  St.,  N.  VV.,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  (monthly);  and  the  Eugenics  Review  (organ  of  the  Eu- 
genics Education  Society),  Kingsway  House,  Kingsway,  W.  C, 
London  (quarterly).  These  periodicals  are  sent  free  to  members  of 
the  respective  societies.  Membership  in  the  American  organization 
is  $2  a  year,  in  the  English  i  guinea  a  year,  associate  membership 
5  shillings  a  year. 


APPENDIX  F 

GLOSSARY 

Acquired  Character,  a  modification  of  a  germinal  trait  after 
cell  fusion.  It  is  difficult  to  draw  a  line  between  characters  that  are 
acquired  and  those  that  are  inborn.  The  idea  involved  is  as  follows: 
in  a  standard  environment,  a  given  factor  in  the  germ-plasm  will 
develop  into  a  trait  which  varies  not  very  widely  about  a  certain 
mean.  The  mean  of  this  trait  is  taken  as  representing  the  germinal 
trait  in  its  typical  condition.  But  if  the  envirorunent  be  not  stand- 
ard, if  it  be  considerably  changed,  the  trait  will  develop  a  variation 
far  from  the  mean  of  that  trait  in  the  species.  Thus  an  American, 
whose  skin  in  the  standard  environment  of  the  United  States  would  be 
blonde,  may  imder  the  environment  of  Cuba  develop  into  a  brunette. 
Such  a  wide  variation  from  the  mean  thus  caused  is  called  an  ac- 
quired character;  it  is  usually  impressed  on  the  organism  after  the 
germinal  trait  has  reached  a  full,  typical  development. 

Allelomorph  (one  another  form),  one  of  a  pair  of  factors  which 
are  alternative  to  each  other  in  Mendehan  inheritance.  Instead  of  a 
single  pair,  there  may  be  a  group  of  "multiple  allelomorphs,"  each 
member  being  alternative  to  every  other  member  of  the  group. 

Allelomorphism,  a  relation  between  two  or  more  factors,  such 
that  two  which  are  present  in  one  zygote  do  not  both  enter  into  the 
same  gamete,  but  are  separated  into  sister  gametes. 

Biometry  (life  measure),  the  study  of  biology  by  statistical 
methods. 

Brachydactyly  (short-finger),  a  condition  in  which  the  bones, 
particularly  of  the  fingers  and  toes,  fail  to  grow  to  their  normal 
length.  In  well-marked  cases  one  of  these  is  a  reduction  from  three 
phalanges  or  joints  to  two. 

Character  (a  contraction  of  "characteristic"),  a  term  which  is 
used,  often  rather  vaguely,  to  designate  any  function,  feature,  or 
organ  of  the  body  or  mind. 

Chromosome  (color  body,  so  called  from  its  affinity  for  certain 
stains),  a  body  of  p>eculiar  protoplasm,  in  the  nucleus  of  the  cell. 
Each  species  has  its  own  characteristic  number;  the  cells  of  the 
human  body  contain  24  chromosomes  each. 

437 


438  APPENDIX  F 

Congenital  (with  birth),  present  at  birth.  The  term  fails  to  dis- 
tinguish between  traits  which  are  actually  inherited,  and  modifica- 
tions acquired  during  prenatal  life.  In  the  interest  of  clear  thinking 
its  use  should  be  avoided  so  far  as  possible. 

Correlation  (together  relation),  a  relation  between  two  variables 
in  a  certain  population,  such  that  for  every  variation  of  one,  there  is  a 
corresp>onding  variation  of  the  other.  Mathematically,  two  correlated 
variables  are  thus  mutually  dependent.  But  a  correlation  is  merely 
a  statistical  description  of  a  particular  case,  and  in  some  other  popula- 
tion the  same  two  variables  might  be  correlated  in  a  different  way, 
other  influences  being  at  work  on  them. 

Cytology  (cell  word),  the  study  of  the  cell,  the  constituent  unit 
of  organisms. 

Determiner  (completely  end),  an  element  or  condition  in  a  germ- 
ceU,  supposed  to  be  essential  to  the  development  of  a  particular 
quality,  feature,  or  maimer  of  reaction  of  the  organism  which  arises 
from  that  germ-cell.  The  word  is  gradually  falling  into  disuse,  and 
"factor"  taking  its  place. 

Dominance  (mastery),  in  Mendelian  hybrids  the  capacity  of  a 
character  which  is  derived  from  only  one  of  two  generating  gametes 
to  develop  to  an  extent  nearly  or  quite  equal  to  that  exhibited  by  an 
individual  which  has  derived  the  same  character  from  both  of  the 
generating  gametes.  In  the  absence  of  dominance  the  given  character 
of  the  hybrid  usually  presents  a  "blend"  or  intermediate  condition 
between  the  two  parents. 

Dysgenic  (bad  origin),  tending  to  impair  the  racial  qualities  of 
future  generations;  the  opposite  of  eugenic. 

Endogamy  (within  mating),  a  custom  of  some  primitive  peoples, 
in  compliance  with  which  a  man  must  choose  his  wife  from  his  own 
group  (clan,  gens,  tribe,  etc.). 

Eugenic  (good  origin),  tending  to  improve  the  racial  qualities  of 
future  generations,  either  physical  or  mental. 

Euthenic  (good  thriving),  tending  to  produce  beneficial  acquired 
characters  or  better  conditions  for  people  to  live  in,  but  not  tending 
(except  incidentally  and  indirectly)  to  produce  people  who  can  hand 
on  the  improvement  by  heredity. 

Evolution  (um-oU),  organic,  the  progressive  change  of  living 
forms,  usually  associated  with  the  development  of  complex  from 
simple  forms. 

Exogamy  (out  mating),  a  custom  of  primitive  peoples  which  re- 


APPENDIX  F  439 

quires  a  man  to  choose  a  wife  from  some  other  group  (clan,  gens, 
tribe,  etc.)  than  his  own. 

Factor  (maker),  a  name  given  to  the  hypothetical  something,  the 
independently  inheritable  element  in  the  germ-cell,  whose  presence 
is  necessary  to  the  development  of  a  certain  inherited  character  or 
characters  or  contributes  with  other  factors  to  the  development  of  a 
character.  "Gene"  and  "determiner"  are  sometimes  used  as  syno- 
nyms of  factor. 

Feeble-mindedness,  a  condition  in  which  mental  development  is 
retarded  or  incomplete.  It  is  a  relative  term,  since  an  individual  who 
would  be  feeble-minded  in  one  society  might  be  normal  or  even  bright 
in  another.  The  customary  criterion  is  the  inability  of  the  individual, 
because  of  mental  defect  existing  from  an  early  age,  to  compete  on 
equal  terms  with  his  normal  fellows,  or  to  manage  himself  or  his  af- 
fairs with  ordinary  prudence.  American  students  usually  distinguish 
three  grades  of  mental  defect:  Idiots  are  those  who  are  unable  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  even  to  the  extent  of  guarding  against  common 
physical  dangers  or  satisfying  physical  needs.  Their  mentality  does 
not  progress  beyond  that  of  a  normal  two-year-old  child.  Imbeciles 
can  care  for  themselves  after  a  fashion,  but  are  unable  to  earn  their 
living.  Their  mental  ages  range  from  three  to  seven  years,  inclusive. 
Morons,  who  correspond  to  the  common  acceptation  of  the  term 
feeble-minded,  "can  under  proper  direction  become  more  or  less  self- 
supporting  but  they  are  as  a  rule  incapable  of  undertaking  affairs 
which  demand  judgment  or  involve  unrestricted  competition  with 
normal  individuals.  Their  intelligence  ranges  with  that  of  normal 
children  from  seven  to  twelve  years  of  age."  There  is  necessarily  a 
considerable  border-line,  but  any  adult  whose  intelligence  is  beyond 
that  of  the  normal  twelve-year-old  child  is  usually  considered  to  be 
not  feeble-minded. 

Gamete  (mate),  a  mature  germ-cell;  in  animals  an  ovum  or  sperma- 
tozoon. 

Genetics  (origins),  for  a  long  time  meant  the  study  of  evolution 
by  experimental  breeding  and  was  often  synonomous  with  Men- 
delism.  It  is  gradually  returning  to  its  broader,  original  meaning  of 
the  study  of  variation  and  heredity,  that  is,  the  origin  of  the  indi- 
vidual's traits.    This  broader  meaning  is  preferable. 

Germinal  (sprig),  due  to  something  present  in  the  germ-cell.  A 
trait  is  germinal  when  its  basis  is  inherited, — as  eye  color, — and  when 
it  develops  with  nothing  more  than  the  standard  environment;  re- 


440  APPENDIX  F 

maining  relatively  constant  from  one  generation  to  another,  except 
as  influenced  by  reproduction. 

Germ-Plasm  (sprig  form),  mature  germ-cells  and  the  living  ma- 
terial from  which  they  are  produced. 

HEMOPHILIA  (blood  love),  an  inability  of  the  blood  to  clot.  It 
thus  becomes  impossible  to  stop  the  flow  of  blood  from  a  cut,  and  one 
who  has  inherited  haemophilia  usually  dies  sooner  or  later  from 
haemorrhage. 

Heredity  (heirship),  is  usually  considered  from  the  outside,  when 
it  may  properly  be  defined  as  organic  resemblance  based  on  descent, 
or  the  correlation  between  relatives.  But  a  better  definition,  based 
on  the  results  of  genetics,  looks  at  it  as  a  mechanism,  not  as  an  ex- 
ternal appearance.  From  this  point  of  view,  heredity  may  be  said 
to  be  "the  persistence  of  certain  cell-constituents  (in  the  germ-cells) 
through  an  unending  number  of  cell-divisions." 

Heterozygote  (different  yolk),  a  zygotic  individual  which  con- 
tains both  members  of  an  allelomorphic  pair. 

HoMOZYGOTE  (samc  yolk),  an  individual  which  contains  only  one 
member  of  an  allelomorphic  pair,  but  contains  that  in  duplicate,  hav- 
ing received  it  from  both  parents.  A  homozygous  individual,  having 
been  formed  by  the  union  of  like  gametes,  in  turn  regularly  produces 
gametes  of  only  one  kind  with  respect  to  any  given  factor,  thus  giv- 
ing rise  to  offspring  which  are,  in  this  regard,  like  the  parents;  in  other 
words,  homozygotes  regularly  "breed  true."  An  individual  maybe 
a  homozygote  with  respect  to  one  factor  and  a  heterozygote  with 
respect  to  another. 

Hormones  (chain),  the  secretions  of  various  internal  glands,  which 
are  carried  in  the  blood  and  have  an  important  specific  influence  on 
the  growth  and  functioning  of  various  parts  of  the  body.  Their  exact 
nature  is  not  yet  understood. 

Inborn  usually  means  germinal,  as  applied  to  a  trait,  and  it  is  so 
used  in  this  book.  Strictly  speaking,  however,  any  trait  which  ap- 
pears in  a  child  at  birth  might  be  caUed  inborn,  and  some  writers, 
particularly  medical  men,  thus  refer  to  traits  acquired  in  prenatal 
life.  Because  of  this  ambiguity  the  word  should  be  carefully  defined 
when  used,  or  avoided. 

Inherent  (in  stick),  as  used  in  this  book,  is  synonymous  with 
germinal. 

Induction  (in  lead),  a  change  brought  about  in  the  germ-plasm 
with  the  effect  of  temporarily  modifying  the  characters  of  an  indi- 


APPENDIX  F  441 

vidual  produced  from  that  germ-plasm;  but  not  of  changing  in  a 
definite  and  i>ennanent  way  any  such  germ-plasm  and  therefore  any 
individual  inherited  traits. 

Innate  (inborn),  synonymous  with  inborn. 

Latent  (he  hidden),  a  term  appUed  to  traits  or  characters  whose 
factors  exist  in  the  germ-plasm  of  an  individual,  but  which  are  not 
visible  in  his  body. 

Law,  in  natural  science  means  a  concise  and  comprehensive  descrip- 
tion of  an  observed  uniform  sequence  of  events.  It  is  thus  quite  dif- 
ferent from  the  law  of  jurists,  who  mean  a  rule  laid  down  for  the 
guidance  of  an  intelligent  being,  by  an  intelligent  being  having  power 
over  him. 

Mendelism,  a  collection  of  laws  of  heredity  (see  Appendix  D)  so- 
called  after  the  discoverer  of  the  first  of  them  to  become  known; 
also  the  analytical  study  of  heredity  with  a  view  to  learning  the  con- 
stitution of  the  germ-cells  of  animals  and  plants. 

Mendeuze,  to  follow  Mendel's  laws  of  inheritance. 

Mores  (customs),  the  approved  customs  or  unwritten  laws  of  a 
people;  the  conventions  of  society;  popular  usage  or  folk- ways  which 
are  reputable. 

Mutation  (change),  has  now  two  accepted  meanings:  (i)  a  pro- 
found change  in  the  germ-plasm  of  an  organism  such  as  will  produce 
numerous  changes  in  its  progeny;  and  (2)  a  discontinuous  heritable 
change  in  a  Mendelian  factor.  It  is  used  in  the  first  sense  by  De  Vries 
and  other  "mutationists"  and  in  the  second  sense  by  Morgan  and 
other  Mendelists;  confusion  has  arisen  from  failure  to  note  the  dif- 
ference in  usage. 

Normal  Curve,  the  curve  of  distribution  of  variations  of  something 
whose  variations  are  due  to  a  multiplicity  of  causes  acting  nearly 
equally  in  both  directions.  It  is  characterized  by  having  more  in- 
dividuals of  a  mediocre  degree  and  progressively  fewer  above  and 
below  this  mode. 

Nucleus  (little  nut),  a  central,  highly-organized  part  of  every 
living  cell,  which  seems  to  play  a  directive  role  in  cell-development 
and  contains,  among  other  things,  the  chromosomes. 

Patent '(lie  open),  a  term  applied  to  traits  which  are  manifestly 
represented  in  the  body  as  well  as  the  germ-plasm  of  an  individual. 
The  converse  of  "latent." 

Probability  Curve,  the  same  as  normal  curve.  Also  called  a 
Gaussian  curve. 


442  APPENDIX  F 

Protoplasm  (first  form),  "the  physical  basis  of  life";  a  chemical 
compound  or  probably  an  emulsion  of  numerous  compounds.  It 
contains  proteins  which  differ  shghtly  in  many  species  of  organism. 
It  contains  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  nitrogen,  sulphur,  and  various 
salts,  but  is  so  complex  as  to  defy  exhaustive  analysis. 

Psychiatry  (soul  healing),  the  study  of  diseases  of  the  mind. 

Recessive  (draw  back),  the  converse  of  dominant;  appUed  to  one 
of  a  pair  of  contrasted  Mendelian  characters  which  can  not  app=ar 
in  the  presence  of  the  other. 

Regression  (back  go),  the  average  variation  of  one  variable  for  a 
unit  variation  of  a  correlated  variable. 

Segregation  (aside  flock),  (i)  as  used  in  eugenics  means  the  policy 
of  isolating  feeble-minded  and  other  anti-social  individuals  from  the 
normal  population  into  institutions,  colonies,  etc.,  where  the  two 
sexes  are  kept  apart.  (2)  The  term  is  also  used  technically  in 
genetics,  to  refer  to  the  discontinuity  of  the  variation  of  character- 
istics  resulting  from  the  independent  distribution  of  factors  before  or 
at  the  time  of  formation  of  the  gametes. 

Selection  (apart  pick) ,  the  choice  (for  perpetuation  by  reproduc- 
tion) from  a  mixed  population,  of  the  individuals  possessing  in  com- 
mon a  certain  character  or  a  certain  degree  of  some  character.  Two 
kinds  of  selection  may  be  distinguished:  (i)  natural  selection,  in 
which  choice  is  made  automatically  by  the  failure  to  reproduce 
(through  death  or  some  other  cause)  of  the  individuals  who  are  not 
"fit  "to  pass  the  tests  of  the  environment  (vitality,  disease  resistance, 
speed,  success  in  mating,  or  what  not) ;  and  (2)  artificial  selection,  in 
which  the  choice  is  made  consciously  by  man,  as  a  five-stock  breeder. 

Sex-Limited,  a  term  applied  to  traits  which  differ  in  the  two  sexes, 
because  influenced  by  the  hormones  of  the  reproductive  glands. 
Example,  the  beard. 

Sex-Linked,  a  term  applied  to  traits  which  are  connected  with 
sex  accidentally  and  not  physiologically  in  development.  The  current 
explanation  is  that  such  traits  happen  to  be  in  the  same  chromosome 
as  the  determiner  of  maleness  or  femaleness,  as  the  case  may  be. 
Color-blindness  is  the  classical  example  in  man. 

Sexual  Selection,  the  conscious  or  imconscious  preference  by 
individuals  of  one  sex,  or  by  that  sex  as  a  whole,  for  individuals  of  the 
other  sex  who  possess  some  particular  attribute  or  attributes  in  a 
degree  above  or  below  the  average  of  their  sex.  If  the  deviation  of 
the  chosen  character  is  in  the  same  direction  (plus  or  minus)  as  in 


APPENDIX  F  443 

the  chooser,  the  mating  is  called  assortative;  if  in  one  direction  inde- 
pendent of  the  characteristic  of  the  chooser,  it  is  called  preferential. 

Soma  (body),  the  body  as  distinguished  from  the  germ-plasm. 
From  this  point  of  view  every  individual  consists  of  only  two  parts, — 
germ-plasm  and  soma  or  somatoplasm. 

Trait,  a  term  used  by  geneticists  as  a  synonym  of  "character." 

Unit-Character,  in  Mendehan  heredity  a  character  or  alternative 
diflPerence  of  any  kind,  which  is  apparently  not  capable  of  subdivision 
in  heredity,  but  is  inherited  as  a  whole,  and  which  is  capable  of  be- 
coming associated  in  new  combinations  with  other  characters.  The 
term  is  now  going  out  of  use,  as  it  makes  for  clearer  thinking  about 
heredity  to  fix  the  attention  on  the  factors  of  the  germ-ceUs  instead 
of  on  the  characters  of  the  adult. 

Variation,  a  deviation  in  the  size,  shape,  or  other  feature  of  a 
character  or  trait,  from  the  mean  or  average  of  that  character  in 
the  species. 

Vestigial  (footstep),  a  term  applied  to  a  character  which  at  some 
time  in  the  evolutionary  history  of  the  species  possessed  importance, 
or  functioned  fully,  but  which  has  now  lost  its  importance  or  its 
original  use,  so  that  it  remains  a  mere  souvenir  of  the  past,  in  a  de- 
generated condition.    Example,  the  muscles  which  move  a  man's  ears. 

Zygote  (yolk),  the  fertilized  egg-cell;  the  united  cell  formed  by 
the  union  of  the  ovum  and  spermatozoon  after  fertilization. 

Zymotic,  caused  by  a  microorganism, — a  term  applied  to  diseases. 
Example,  tuberculosis. 


INDEX 


Abderholden,  E.,  422 
Acquired  character,  437 
Administrative  aspects,  194 
Adult  mortality,  345 
Afghans,  321 
Africa,  290,  291 
Agriculture,  307 
Aguinaldo,  E.,  314 
Aims  of  eugenics,  152 
Alabama,  187,  202,  296 
Alaska,  187 
Albinism,  433 
Alcohol,  44,  48,  49,  130 
Alcoholism,  213,  302 
Aleurone,  104 
Allelomorphism,  437 
Allelomorphs,  108,  427,  437 
Alpine  Type,  427 
America,  432 

American  Breeders  Assn,  154,  194 
American  Breeders  Magazine,  154 
American  Prison  Assn.,  182 
American  Genetic  Assn.,  154,  277 
American  stock,  258,  424 
Americans,  427,  428 
American-Chinese  Marriages,  313 
Amherst  College,  255,  266 
Amoy,  315 

Ancestral  Inheritance  Law,  112 
Anglian,  426 
Anglo-Saxon,  426 
Anthropological     Soc.     of     Den- 
mark, 15s 
Apartment  houses,  377 
Appearance,  219,  221 
Appropriate  opportunity,  366 


Arabs,  230,  280 
Argentina,  326 
Aristocracy,  362 
Aristodemocracy,  362 
Aristotle,  32 
Arizona,  187 
Arkansas,  241 
Armenians,  299,  302,  427 
Army,  American,  83 
Arnold,  M.,  394 
Arsenic,  63 
Art,  96 

Asiatic  immigration,  311 
Asiatic  Turkey,  299 
Assortative  mating,  126,  211 
Athenians,  133 
Atrophy  of  optic  nerve,  433 
Atwater,  W.  O.  422 
Austria,  137,  155 
Australian,  129 
Australian  marriages,  222 
Automobile,  efifect  of  377 

B 

Baby  saving  campaign,  408 

Bachelors,  tax  on,  353 

Back  to  the  farm  movement,  355 

Backward  children,  188 

Bahama  Islands,  203 

Baker,  O.  E.,  6 

Baltzly,  A.,  327 

Banker,  H.  J.,  267,  245 

Banns,  197 

Barrington,  A.,  13 

Batz,  207 

Baur,  E.,  104 

Bean  and  Mall,  285 


445 


446 


INDEX 


Beans,  Fig.  13. 

Beeton,  M.,  144,  404,  408,  411 

Beggars,  302 

Belgium,  138,  155,  324 

Bell,  A.  G.,  144,  183,  226,  345,  347, 

350,402,407,  411 
Bentliam,  J.,  165 
Berlin,  140 
Bermuda,  205 
Bertholet,  E.,  57 
Bertillon,  J.,  140 
Besant,  A.,  269 
Better  babies  movement,  155 
Bezzola,  D.,  56 
Billings,  W.  C,  313 
Binet  tests,  287 
Biometric  method,  31 
Biometry,  437 
Birth  control,  269 
Bisexual  societies,  234 
Bismarck,  von,  O.  E.  L.,  422 
Blakeslee,  A.  F.,  Figs.  2,  3,  13, 14 
Blascoe,  F.,  282 
Bleeders,  38 
Blind,  156 
BUndness,  32 
Blucher,  von  G.  L.,  321 
Blumer,  J.  C.,  244 
Boas,  F.,  41,  282,  283 
Boer  War,  321 

Boer-Hottentot  mulattoes,  300 
Body-plasm,  27 
Bohemians,  311,  427 
Boston,  Mass.,  261,  182 
Boveri,  T.,  27 
Brachybioty,  409 
Brachycephalic  heads,  427 
Brachydactyly,  433,  437,  Fig.  17 
Bradlaugh,  C,  269 
Brazil,  325 
Breton  race,  273 
Bridges,  C.  B.,  loi 
Brigham  Young  College,  219 
British,  427 


British  Columbia,  305 

British  Indian  immigration,  312 

Bruce,  H.  A.,  23 

Bryn  Mawr  College,  240,  263 

Burris,  W.  P.,  97 


Caesar,  J.,  179,  207 

Caffeine,  45 

California,  172,  192 

California  University,  100 

Cambridge  graduates,  428 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  261 

Cape  Cod,  206 

Carnegie    Institution   of   Washing- 
ton, 154 

Carnegie,     Margaret     Morrison, 
School,  278 

Carpenter,  E.,  379 

Carver,  T.  N.,  305,  367 

Castle,  C.  S.,  243 

Castle,   W.  E.,  87,  100,  105,  108, 
300,  419,  435,  Fig.  20 

Catlin,  G.,  130 

Cattell,  J.  McK.,  20,  21,  268,  269 

Cavour,  C.  B.,  19 

Celibacy,  173 

Celtic,  41 

Celto-Slav  Type,  427 

Central  Europe,  427 

Ceylon,  129 

Character,  219,  221,  437 

Charm  and  taboo,  395 

Chastity,  251,  386 

Chicago,  m.,  182,  261 

Chicks,  47 

Child  bearing.  Effect  of,  346 

Child  Labor,  368 

Childless  wives,  268 

Child  mortality,  403,^^07 

Children     sur\dving     per     capita, 
267 

China,  20,  137,  274 


INDEX 


447 


Chinese,  315,  397,  Fig.  5 
Chinese  immigration,  321 
Chorea,  Himtingdon's,  109,  433 
Christianity,  171,  394 
Chromosomes,  87,  431,  437 
Church  acquaintances,  234 
Civic     Club     (Pittsburgh,    Penn.), 

371 
Civil  War,  268,  301,  321,  326,  402 
Cleopatra,  207 
Climate,  42 
Cobb,  M.  v.,  96 
Co-education,  267,  383 
Coefficient  of  correlation,  212 
Coercive  means,  184 
Cold  Spring  Harbor,  100 
Coldness,  251 

Cole,  L.  J.,  45,  SI,  63,  Fig.  7 
Collateral  inheritance,  404 
College  women,  241 
Collins,  G.  N.,  104 
Colonial  ancestry,  426 
Colony  plan,  188 
Color  line,  280 
Color-blindness,  109,  433 
Columbus,  C,  132 
Columbia,  District  of,  187 
Columbus,  Ohio,  261 
Columbia  University,   10,  41,    100, 

278 
Combemaie,  44 
Compulsory  education,  369 
Confederate  Army,  323 
Congenital,  438 
Conklin,  E.  G.,  435 
Connecticut,  76,  128,  192,  261,  326 
Connecticut    Agricultural    College, 

82,  Fig.  14 
Consanguinity,  207 
Conscription,  319 
Continuity  of  germ-plasm,  29 
Controlled  association  tests,  288 
Cook,  O.  F.,  356 
Com,  Fig.  2 


Cornell  Medical  College,  45 

Correlation,  13,  212,  438 

Cost  of  clothing,  274 

Cost  of  domestic  labor,  275 

Cost  of  food,  274 

Cost  of  medical  attention,  275 

Courtis,  S.  A.,  77 

Cousins,  202 

Criminals,  158,  182,  192 

Croatians,  427 

Crum,  Frederick  S.,  259 

Cushing,  H.,  102 

Cynical  attitude,  249 

Cytology,  438 


Danes,  426 

Dalmatians,  311 

Dance  acquaintances,  234 

Dark  family,  168 

Darwin,  C,  20,  21,  25,  68,  69,  117, 

134,  147,  151,  174,  208,  214,  334 
Darwinism,  214 
Davenport,  C.  B.,  66,  154,  159,  182, 

202,  205,  208,  246,  338,  341,  342, 

348,  349,  433,  435 
Davies,  Maria  Thompson,  235 
Deaf,  157 
Deafness,  32,  154 
Declaration  of  Independence,  75 
Declining    birth    rate,     237,     256, 

268,  400 
Defective  germ  plasm,  194 
Defectives,  302 

Definition  of  eugenics,  147,  152 
Degenerate  persons,  193 
Delaware,  187 
Delayed  marriage,  217 
Delinquents,  302 
Demme,  R.,  56 
Democracy,  360 
Denmark,  137 
Dependents,  302 


448 


INDEX 


Desirability     of     Restrictive     Eu- 
genics, 167 
Destitute  classes,  214 
Determiners,  432,  438 
Differences  among  men,  75 
Diffloth,  P.,  222 
Diseases,  38 
Disease  resistance,  402 
Disposition,  219,  221, 
Distribution,  307 
District  of  Columbia,  187 
Divorce,  201 

Dolichocephalic  heads,  427 
Doll,  E.  A.,  421 
Dominance,  438 
Dominant,  433 
Dress,  219,  221 
Drinkwater,  342 
Drosophila,  loi 
Drug  fiends,  193 
Drunkenness,  389 
Dublin,  L.  I.  400 
Dubois,  P.,  23,  24 
DuBois,  W.  E.  B.  295 
Duncan,  J.  M.,  247 
Duncan,  F.  N.,  102,  Fig.  17 
Dugdale,  R.  L.,  159 
J)urant  scholarship,  262 
Dyer  family,  206 
Dynamic  evolution,  421 
Dynamic  of  manhood,  223 
Dysgenic,  definition  of,  438 
Dysgenic  types,  176 


Earle,  E.  L.,  94 
Early  marriages,  247 
Eastern  Europe,  427 
East,  E.  M.,  104 
East  north  central  states,  358 
East  south  central  states,  358 
Ebbinghaus  tests,  288 
Economic  determinism,  365 


Economic  equality  of  sexes,  380 

Economic  status,  250 

Economic  standing  of  parents,  370 

Edinburgh,  57 

Education,  219,  221 

Education,  compulsory,  368 

Education  and  race  suicide,  253 

Edwards,  J.,  161 

Egypt,  206 

EgJT)tian,  285,  Fig.  6 

Elderton,  E.  M.,  10,  55,  57,  60,  122, 

IS3,  413 

Elderton,  W.  P.,  124 

Elevation  of  standards,  277 

Ellis,  H.,  96,  224,  379 

Ellis  Island,  302,  303,  427 

Emancipation  of  women,  364 

Emerson,  R.  A.,  104 

Endogamy,  222,  438 

England,  15,  16,  121,  122,  138,  237, 
381,  427,  432 

English,  259,  311,  321,  426,  427,  428 

Epilepsy,  58,  79 

Epileptics,  193,  302 

Eskimo,  49,  127 

Estabrook,  A.  H.,  143,  159,  168 

Equalitarianism  362 

Equality,  229 

Equality  of  opportunity,  366 

Equal  pay  for  equal  work,  380 

Essence  of  Mendelism,  429 

Eugenic  aspect  .of  specific  reforms, 
352 

Eugenic  laws,  191 

Eugenic  marriages,  352 

Eugenics  and  euthenics  438 

Eugenics  Education  Society,  153 

Eugenics  movement,  147 

Eugenics  registry,  350 

Eugenics  Record  Office,  153,  194, 
202,  348,  349,  436 

Eugenics  Review,  436 

Eugenics  and  social  welfare.  Bul- 
letin, 435 


INDEX 


449 


Euthenics,     155,    41S,    4i6,    417, 

438 
Euthenics,  eugenics  and,  402 
Eye,  59 
Evolution,  438 
Exogamy,  22,  438 


Facial  attractiveness,  215 
Fairchild,  H.  P.,  308 
Family  alignment,  229 
Faraday,  M.,  334 
Farrabee,  W.  C,  132 
Fecundal  selection,  137 
Feebly  inhibited,  182 
Feeble  minded,  157,  172,  302 
Feeble-mindedness,  71,  176 
F^r^,  C.  S.,  44 
Fernandez  brothers,  314 
Ferguson,  G.  O.,  Jr.,  287,  288 
Fertility,  relative,  247 
Filipinos,  315 
Financial  aspect,  1 73 
Financial  success,  219 
Finger  prints,  Fig.  25 
Finger  tip.  Figs.  21,22 
Finns,  299,  302,  311 
Fishberg,  M.,  126 
Florida,  187 
Foot,  Egyptian,  Fig.  6 
Foreign-bom,  238 
Formal  social  functions,  236 
Foster,  M.,  29 
France,  138,  155,  206,  237 
Franco-Prussian  war,  321 
Franklin,  B.,  230 
Frederick  the  Great,  19 
Fredericksburg,  Va.,  288 
Freiburg,  University,  of,  125 
French-Canadians,  259 
French  revolution,  18 
Freud,  S.,  213 


Gallichan,  W.,  252 

Galton,  Eugenics  Laboratory,   153, 

349 
Galton,  F.,  V,  2,  5,  6,  8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 
89,  90,  95.  99,  "o,  III,  "2,  113, 
147,  148,  151,  152,  162,  222,  228, 

230,  247,  342,  435 
Galton    Laboratory     of     National 

Eugenics,  269,  436 
Galton-Pearson  law,  113,  114 
Gamete,  439 
Garibaldi,  G.,  19 
Garrison,  W.  L.,  295,  296 
Genealogical    Record    OfEce,    402, 

405,407,  409,  411,  412 
Genealogy  and  eugenics,  329,  439 
Genesis,  64 
Genetics,  340,  439 
Genius,  hereditary,  151 
George,  F.  O.,  234 
Georgia,  187 

Geographical  distribution,  261 
German,  35,  259,  280,  311 
German  society  for  race  hygiene, 

163 
Germany,  20,  137,  155,  299,  360 
Germinal,  439 
Germ-plasm,  25,  429,  440 
Ghetto,  305 
Gifted  families,  213 
Gillette,  J.  M.,  356,  358,  359 
Gilman,  C.  P.,  378 
Gihnore,  C.  F.,  136,  216,  227 
Gini,  C,  344,  346 
Giotto,  342 

Gochuico,  Ricardo,  315 
Goddard,  H.  H.,  71,  105,  108,  160, 

176,  188 
Gonorrhea,  63 
Goodrich,  M.  T.,  333 
Goring,  C,  124,  214 
Grant,  Madison,  301,  420 


4SO 


INDEX 


Grant,  U.  S.,  374 
Great  Britain,  130,  232 
Great  race,  426 
Great  war,  ix,  298,  327 
Greek  idea  of  eugenics,  150 
Greek  slaves,  284 
Greeks,  299,  302,  321,  427 
Greenwood  lake,  233 
Growth  of  eugenics,  147 
Gruber  von,  and  Rubin,  204 
Guatemala  Indians,  356 
Guinea  pigs,  45,  419 
Gulick,  J.  T.,  134 
Gulick,  L.  H.,  223 
Gulick,  S.  L.,  311,  313 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  19 
Guyer,  M.  F.,  194,  435 

H 

Habitual  criminal,  194 

Hair,  white  blaze  in,  433 

Haiti,  284,  289 

Hall,  G.  S.,  225 

Hall  of  Fame,  17,  19 

Hamiliton,  A.  E.,  278,  433,  435 

Hankins,  F.  H.,  237 

Hanks  Family,  333 

Hap,  L.,  314 

Hapaa,  131 

Harrison,  Mrs.  E.  H.,  154 

Harris,  J.  A.,  100,  211,  404 

Hart,  H.  H.,  186 

Hartford,  Conn.,  261 

Harvard  University,   87,   245,   246, 

266 
Health,  219,  221 
Heape,  W.,  419 
Hebrews,  41,  302 
Hebrews,  East  European,  299 
Hebrews,  Russian,  302 
Heller,  L.  L.  64 
Helsingfors,  54 
Hempohilia,  38,  40,  433 


Hereditary  genius,  16,  151 

Hereditary,  440 

Heredity,  laws  of,  99 

Heredity,  talent  and  genius,  151 

Heron,  D.,  14,  15,  140,  153 

Herzegovinians,  311 

Heterozygote,  440 

Heterozygous,  427,  433 

Hewes,  A.,  240 

Hibbs,  H.  H.,  Jr.,  411 

Hickory  Family,  168 

Higher  education,  276 

Hill  folk,  168 

Hill,  J.  A.,  268 

Hindus,  305 

Hitchcock,  C.  H.,  ^^^ 

Hodge,  44 

Hofifman,  F.  L.,  128,  259 

Holland,  137,  143,  155 

HolUngworth,  H.  L.,  342 

Home  acquaintances,  234 

Homo  sapiens,  300 

Homozygote,  440 

Homozygous,  427 

Hooker,  J.,  68 

Hopetown,  203 

Hormones,  440 

Horsley,  V.,  55 

Housekeeping,  219,  221 

Housing,  376 

Howard,  A.,  104 

Howard,  G.,  104 

Howard  University,  388 

Hrdlicka,   A.,   285,  424,   426,  427, 

428 
Huguenots,  424,  427 
Humanistic  religion,  396 
Humanitarian  aspect,  171 
Hungary,  155,  302 
Hunter,  W.,  69 
Huntington,  E.,  42 
Huntington's  Chorea,  180 
Huxley,  J.  L.,  3 
Hyde  Family,  346,  411 


INDEX 


4SI 


Idiots,  1 88,  3f>? 

Illegitimacy,  325 

Illegitimate  children,  208,  386 

Illinois,  172,  208 

Illinois,  University  of,  244 

Hocano,  315 

Imbeciles,  188 

Immigration,  298 

Immigration  Commission,  304,  310 

Immortality,  29 

Improvement    of    sexual   selection, 

211 
Inborn,  definition  of,  440 
Inborn  characters,  32 
Income  Tax,  353 
Increasing  the  marriage  rate  of  the 

superior,  237 
Indiana,  172,  179,  208 
Indian,  American,  49,  130 
Individualism,  253 
Induction,  440 
Infant  mortality,  121,  413 
Infant  mortality  movement,  414 
Infusorian,  26 
Inherent,  440 

Inheritance  of  mental  capacities,  84 
Inheritance  Tax,  353 
Innate,  441 
Inkowa  Camp,  233 
Inquiries  into  human  faculty,  5,  152 
Insane,  15,  302 
Insanity,  178 
Institut  Solvay,  155 
Intelligence,  106 
Intermarriage,  206 
International    Eugenics     Congress, 

15s 
International  Eugenics  Society,  155 
Iowa,  208 

Isabella,  Queen  of  Spain,  19 
Ishmael  Family,  168 
Islam,  284 


Italian,  41,  259,  299,  302,  308,  311 

Italians,  Southern,  304 

Italy,  19,  137 

Ireland,  299 

Irish,  41,  259,  311,427 


Jacob,  64 

Jamaica,  289 

James,  W.,  51,  327 

Japan,  137 

Japanese,  127 

Japanese  immigration,  312 

Jefferson,  T.,  75 

Jefferson  Reformatory,  191 

Jena,  Battle  of,  321 

Jenks,  A.  E.,  295,  314 

Jenks,  J.  W.,  308, 

Jennings,  H.  S.,  105 

Jesus,  396 

Jews,  52,  133,  284,  304 

Jewish  eugenics,  394 

Jewish  race,  358 

Johnson,  E.  H.,  282 

Johnson,  R.  H.,  vi,  117 

Johnstone,  E.  R.,  188 

Jones,  E.,  213 

Jordan,  D.  S.,  323,  326 

Jordan,  H.  E.,  323 

Journal  of  Heredity,  154,  436 

Judaism,  394 

Juke  family,  143,  159,  168,  169 


Kafirs,  285 

Kaiser  of  Germany,  204 
Kallikak  Family,  160 
Kansas,  172,  194,  208 
Kansas  City,  Mo.,  261 
Kansas  State  Agrigultural  College, 
244 


452 


INDEX 


Kechuka  Camp,  435 
Kellogg,  v.,  215,  321,  31? 
Kelsey,  C,  435 
Kentucky,  172 
Keys,  F.  M.,  Fig.  i 
Key,  W.  E.,  168 
Knopf,  S.  A.,  127 
Komhauser,  A.  W.,  370 
Kuczynski,  R.  R.,  260 


Laban,  64 

Laitinen,  T.,  54,  55 

Lamarck,  J.  B.,  37 

Lamarckian,  35 

Lamarckian  Theory,  421 

Lamarckism,  37 

Late  marriages,  218 

Latent,  441 

Lauck,  W.  J.,  308 

Laughlin,  H.  H.,  341 

Law,  441 

Laws,  eugenic,  196 

Laws  of  heredity,  99 

Lead,  57,  63,  Fig.  7 

League  to  enforce  peace,  328 

Lechoco,  F.,  314 

Legal  aspects,  194 

Legislative  aspects,  194 

Leipzig,  321 

Lethal  chamber,  184 

Lethal  selection,  145 

Levantines,  299 

Lewin,  G.  R.  L.,  62 

Lim,  B.,  314 

Lincoln,  A.,  20,  333 

Lincoln,  T.,  33s 

Lithuanians,  311 

Living  wage,  375 

Loeb,  J.,  379 

Lombroso,  C,  179,  182 

London,  140,  141 

Longevity,  403 


Longfellow,  H.  E.,  153 
Lorenz,  O.,  330 
Loscin  and  Lascin,  314 
Louisiana,  1-87,  296 
Lunatics,  193 
Lutz,  F.  E.,  Fig.  16 
Luzon,  315 
Lynn,  Mass,.  261 

M 

Macedonia,  326 

MacNicholl,  T.  A.,  55,  56 

Madonnas,  397 

Magyars,  299,  302,  427 

Maine,  172 

Maine,  University  of,  47 

Mairet,  44 

Maize,  104 

Malaria,  63 

Malayans,  315 

Mall,  Bean  &,  285 

Malone,  Widow,  204 

Malthus,  117,  134,  14s,  151 

Mamelukes,  284 

Management,  221 

Manchester,  57 

Mann,  Mrs.  Horace,  153  * 

Marks,  school,  216 

Marriage  laws,  196 

Marriage  rate,  237 

Marshall,  Gov.  Thomas  R.,  191 

Martha's  Vineyard,  154 

Maryland,  206 

Massachusetts,  123,  241,  255,  259, 

260,  261,  295,  326 
Mass.  Agricultural  College,  255 
Mass.  State  Prison,  182 
Maternal  impression,  64 
Maternity,  221 
Mayo,  M.  J.,  286 
Mean  American  man,  425 
Mechanism  of  inheritance,  431 
Mecklin,  J.  M.,  280,  281,  283 


INDEX 


453 


Medical  colleges,  246 

Mediterranean,  49,  52 

Mediterranean  race,  280,  357 

Melting  pot,  424,  428 

Mendel,  G.,  427 

Mendelian  units,  105 

Mendelism,  430,  441 

Mendelism,  essence  of,  427 

Mendelssohn,  F.  B.,  96 

Mental  capacities,  inheritance  of,  84 

Mental  measurements,  75 

Mesocephalic  heads,  427 

Mestizos,  314 

Methodist  clergymen,  270 

Methods  of  restriction,  184 

Metis,  Spanish,  314 

Meyerbeer,  G.,  96 

Mice,  45 

Michigan,  172,  194 

Middle  Atlantic  states,  358 

Middletown,  Conn.,  192 

Military  celibacy,  320 

Miller,  K.,  388 

Mill,  J.  S.,  165,  174 

Milton,  J.,  21 

Minimum  wage,  374 

Minnesota,  172,  202 

Miscegenation,  209,  291 

Missouri,  208,  288 

Modesty,  251 

Modification  of  the  germ-plasm,  25 

Mohammed,  179 

Money,  229 

Monogamy,  222,  387 

Moody,  L.,  153 

Moral  equivalent  of  war,  27 

Moral  perverts,  193 

Moravians,  311 

Mores,  222,  441 

Morgan,  A.,  233 

Morgan,  T.  H.,  4,  100,  loi 

Mormon  Church,  273 

Moron,  188 

Mothers'  pensions,  375,  376 


Mother's  age,  influence  of,  347 

Motivated  ethics,  394 

Mountain  states,  358 

Mount  Holyoke  College,  240,  263 

Movement,  eugenic,  147 

Mozambique,  129 

Mulatto,  288 

Muller,  H.  J.,  loi,  Fig.  19 

Multiple  factors,  104 

Muncey,  E.  B.,  433 

Murphey,  H.  D.,  242 

Music,  96 

Mutation,  441 

Mutilations,  38 

Myopia,  13,  59 

McDonald,  A.,  286 

N 

Nam  Family,  143,  168 

Naples,  303 

Napoleon,  18,  179,  321 

Nashville,  Tenn.,  261 

Nasmyth,  G.,  322 

National  army,  319 

National  association  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  colored  people, 
294,  295 

National  committee  for  mental 
hygiene,  172 

Native  whites,  238 

Natural  inheritance,  152 

Natural  selection,  148 

Nature,  i 

Nearing,  S.,  261 

Nebraska,  208 

Negroes,  238,  280 

Negro  women,  387 

Nevada,  187,  192,  296 

New  England,  260,  265,  274,  291, 
358,  426 

New  Hampshire,  208 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  261 

New  Jersey,  179,  193,  202 


454 


INDEX 


New  Mexico,  187 

Newport  News,  Va.,  288 

Newsholme  A.,  140,  141 

New  York,   11,  77,   172,  182,  186, 

193.  233,  282,  286 
New  world,  324 
Nice,  45,  47 
Nicolin,  45 

Night-blindness,  109,  433 
Nilsson-Ehle,  H.,  104 
Nobility,  118 
Nordic,  426 

Nordic  race,  280,  301,  357 
Normal  curve,  441 
Normal  school  girls,  262 
Norman  conquest,  338 
Normandy,  338 
North  Carolina,  326 
North  Dakota,  193 
North  European,  426 
North  Italians,  427 
Northern  United  States,  326 
Norway,  137 
Norwich,  Conn.,  192 
Novikov,  J.,  322 
Nucleus,  441 
Nurture,  i 

O 

Oberlin  college,  244 

Occupation,  diseases  of,  62 

Odin,  A.,  258 

Ohio,  172 

Ohio  State  University,  244 

Oklahoma,  202,  208 

Oliver,  T.,  62 

Oregon,  208 

Organization  of  industry,  307 

Oriental  immigration,  313 

Origin  of  eugenics,  147 

Orthodactyly,  loi,  102,  384,  433 

Ovarian  transplantation,  419 

Ovize,  44 


Pacific,  358 

Paget  parish,  Bermuda,  205 

Paine,  J.  H.,  Figs.  16,  21 

Paraquay,  325 

Parents  of  great  men,  423 

Paris,  140,  155 

Parker,  G.,  233 

Parole,  209 

Partial  segregation,  250 

Past  performance,  342 

Passing  of  the  great  race,  426 

Pasteur,  L.,  333,  334 

Patent,  definition  of,  441 

Paternity,  219 

Paul,  C,  63 

Paupers,  157,  302 

Pearl,  R.,  47,  48,  99,  423 

Pearson,  K.,  10,  12,  55,  56,  57,  60, 
85,  93>  99. 118,  119,  120,  121,  122, 
124,  125,  126,  127,  134  143,  144, 
153,  212,  215,  224,  227,  231,  232, 
344,  348,  349,  368,  404,  408,  409. 
411,413,428,433 

Pedagogical  celibacy,  390 

Peerage,  232 

Pennsylvania,  167,  187,  202,  208 

Pennsylvania  Dutch,  424 

Pennsylvania,  feeble-minded  cit- 
izens of,  168 

Pennsylvania,  University  of,  132 

Penrose,  C.  A.,  203 

Perrin,  372 

Percy,  H.,  Fig.  19 

Perry,  S.  J.,  124 

Persians,  321 

Perversion,  248 

Pessimism,  247 

Peters,  I.  L.,  226 

Phi  Beta  Kappa,  241,  262 

Philanthropy,  33 

Philippine  islands,  313 

Philippines,  324 


INDEX 


4SS 


Phillips,  B.  A.,  287 

Phillips,  J.  C,  245,  267,  419 

Phthisis,  126 

Physical  care  of  the  infant,  278 

Physical  culture,  219 

Physico-chemical  effects,  38 

Piang,  Datto,  314 

Piebaldism,  103,  433,  Fig.  20 

Pike,  F.  H.,  3 

Pikipitanges,  132 

Pilgrim  fathers,  424 

Piney  folk,  168 

Pitcaim  islanders,  300 

Pittsburgh,  138 

Pittsburgh,  University  of,  234 

Pituitary  gland,  103 

Plato,  150 

Ploetz,  A.,  118,  119,  408,  409,  410 

Plymouth,  England,  118 

Poisons,  racial,  48,  61,  63,  Fig.  7 

Poles,  259,  299,  427 

Polygamy,  387 

Polynesians,  127,  129 

Pope,  E.  G.,  124 

Popenoe,  C.  H.,  78 

Popenoe,  P.,  vi,  244,  245,  270,  402, 

423 
Population,  Malthusian,  151 
Portland,  Ore.,  261 
Portuguese,  299,  302 
Possible  improvement  of  the  human 

breed,  etc.,  152 
Poulton,  E.  B.,  43 
Powys,  A.  O.,  272,  346 
Pragmatic  school,  352 
Preferential  mating,  214 
Pre-natal  care,  70 
Pre-natal  culture,  70 
Pre-natal  influence,  64 
Pre-natal  life,  155 
Princeton  college,  249 
Probability  curve,  78,  80,  441 
Proctor  fellowship,  249 
Production,  307 


Professional  classes,  232 

Professor's  families,  228 

Progressive  changes,  39 

Prohibited  degrees  of  marriage,  222 

Prohibition,  389 

Propaganda,  eugenic,  195 

Prophylaxis,  252 

Prostitution,  251 

Protestant  Christianity,  274 

Protoplasm,  442 

Prussia,  121,  321 

Pseudo-celibacy,  248 

Psychiatry,  442 

Psychopathic  inferiority,  302 

Ptolemies,  206 

Public  charities  association,  168 

Punishment,  192 

Punitive  purpose,  192 

Puritan,  298 

Pyle,  W.  H.,  287 


Quadruplets,  Fig.  I 
Quaker  families,  118,  144 
Quakers,  English,  411 

R 

Rabaud,  E.,  73 

Rabbits,  45 

Race  betterment  conference,  first,  i 

Race  suicide,  257 

Racial  poisons,  48,  61,  63,  338,  Fig.  7 

Radot,  R.  v.,  333 

Rapists,  193 

Recessive,  433,  442 

Reconstruction  period,  325 

Redfield,  C.  L.,  40,  421,  422,  423 

Refraction,  59 

Regression,  112,  442 

Reid,  G.  A.,  50,  125,  129 

Religion  and  eugenics,  393 

Remote  ancestors,  338 


4S6 


INDEX 


Research  fellowship,  153 

Reserve,  251 

Restriction,  methods  of,  184 

Restrictive  eugenics,  175,  184 

Retrogression,  42 

Revolutionary  war,  426 

Reward  and  punishment,  395 

Rhode  Island,  261 

Rice,  J.  M.,  95 

Richmond,  Va.,  288^ 

Riis,  J.,  I 

Roman  catholic  church,  273 

Roman  republic,  284 

Rome  custodial  asylum,  186 

Roosevelt,  T.,  308 

Ross,  E.  A.,  X,  301 

Roumanians,  299,  311,  427 

Round-headed  type,  427 

Rousseau,  J.  J.,  75 

Royal  families,  17,  20,  118,  410 

Rubin,  von  Gruber  and,  204 

Ruskin,  342 

Russell  Sage  Foundation,  186 

Russia,  137,  302,  325 

Russian  Jews,  427 

Russians,  259,  302,  311,  427 

Russo-Hebrew,  302 

Russo-Japanese  war,  321 

Ruthenians,  311 


Sacerdotal  celibacy,  222 

St.  Louis,  154 

St.  Paul,  public  schools  of,  372 

Salpingectomy,  185 

San  Domingo,  289 

Save  the  babies  propaganda,  273, 

412 
Saxon,  426 
Scandinavia,  299 
Scandinavian,  311 
Schonberg,  Berlin,  382 
School  acquaintance,  234 


Schuster,  E.,  93,  153,  435 

Scope  of  eugenics,  152 

Scotch,  259,  311 

Scotland,  237 

Scrub,  229 

Seashore,  C.  E.,  343 

Segregation,  88,  185,  430,  442 

Selection,  442 

Selection,  natural,  148 

Selective  conscription,  320 

Self-repression,  251 

Sewall,  S.  E.,  153 

Sex  determination,  347 

Sex  equality,  379 

Sex  ethics,  252 

Sex  histories,  252 

Sex  hygiene  movement,  385 

Sex  hygienists,  154 

Sex-limited,  442 

Sex-linked,  442 

Sex-linked  characters,  433 

Sexual  perverts,  193 

Sexual  selection,  136,  215,  262,  325, 

442 
Sexual  variety,  247 
Shepherd's  purse,  104 
Shinn,  M.  W.,  243 
Short-fingerness,  102 
Shorthorn  cattle,  423 
Short-sightedness,  12 
ShuU,  G.  H.,  104 
Sibs,  202 
Sidis,  B.,  86 
Simpson,  Q.  V.,  Fig.  20 
Single  tax,  353 
Sing  Sing,  182 
Sixty  family,  168 
Slavs,  299,  304 
Smith's  island,  206 
Smith,  M.  R.,  241,  265 
Snow,  E.  C,  121,  413 
Social  status,  229 
Socialism,  362 
Solvay  Institut,  155 


INDEX 


457 


Soma,  443 

Somerset  parish,  Bermuda,  205 

South  Atlantic,  358 

South  Carolina,  187 

South  Dakota,  208,  296 

South  Italians,  427 

South  Slavs,  302 

Southern  United  States,  291,  325 

Southwestern  state  normal  school, 
217 

Spain,  19,  137 

Spanish,  324 

Spanish  conquest,  131 

Spanish  wells,  203 

Spartans,  171 

Spencer,  H.,  33,  34,  35,  41, 136,  165, 
348 

Spermatozoa,  45 

Spirochsete,  62 

Sprague,  R.  J.,  240,  253,  255,  262 

Standards  of  education,  275 

Stanford  University,  245 

Starch,  D.,  21 

State  Board  of  Charities  of  New 
York,  435 

Station  for  Experimental  Evolu- 
tion, 100 

Sterilization,  185 

Stetson,  G.  R.,  286 

Stevenson,  R.  L.,  131,  301 

Stiles,  C.  W.,  291 

Stockard,  C.  R.,  44,  45,  47 

Strong,  A.  C,  287 

Stuart  line,  19 

Sturge,  M.  D.,  55 

Sturtevant,  A.  H.,  loi 

Subordination  of  women,  362 

Substitution  tests,  288 

Superficial  characteristics,  227 

Superior,  marriage  rate  of,  237 

Superiority  of  eldest,  344 

Sweden,  138,  155 

Swedes,  259 

Switzerland,  56,  138,  155 


Symphalangism,  433,  Fig,  17 
Sj^jhilis,  63 
Syphilitics,  193 
Syracuse  University,  245 
Syrians,  299,  302 


Taboo,  222,  297 

Tail-male  line,  331 

Talent,  hereditary,  151 

Tarbell,  I.  M.,  333 

Tasmania,  131,  132 

Taxation,  352 

Taylor,  J.  H.,  Figs.  22,  25 

Telegony,  73 

Ten  commandments,  394 

Tennessee,  187 

Terman,  L.  M.,  106 

Teutonic,  426 

Teutonic  nations,  52 

Texas,  202 

Theism,  398 

Theistic  religion,  395 

Theognis  of  Megara,  150 

Therapeutic,  192 

Thirty  Years'  war,  326 

Thompson,  J.  A.,  29,  34,  435 

Thomdike,  E.  L.,  10,  11,  21,  76,  79, 

90,  91,  373 
Threadwom,  7 
Tobacco,  45,  63 
Todde,  C,  45 
Trades  unionism,  388 
Training  school  of  Vineland,  N.  J., 

188 
Trait,  443 
Transmissibility,  38 
Tropical  fevers,  133 
Tropics,  3S 
Truro,  206 

Tuberculosis,  57,  124,  199,  302 
Turkey,  137 
Turkish,  311 


458 


INDEX 


Turner,  J.  M.  W.,  68,  342 
Turpitude,  moral,  194 
Twins,  90,  Figs.  24,  25 


U 

Unfitness,  121 

Unit-character,  443 

United  States,  16,  24,  137,  155,  289, 

291,  407 
U.  S.  public  health  service,  303 
University  of  London,  1 53 
University  of  Pittsburgh,  216 
Unlike,  marriage  of,  212 
Uruguay,  325 
Use  and  disuse,  38 
Useful  works  of  reference,  435 
Utah,  187,  208 
Uterine  infection,  38 


Vagrants,  302 

Variation,  443 

Variate  difiference  correlation,  121 

Vasectomy,  184 

Vassar  College,  240 

Vedder,  E.  B.,  387 

Veblen,  T.,  228 

Venereal  diseases,  248,  251 

Venereal  infection,  386 

Vermont,  326 

Vestigial,  443 

Victor  Emmanuel,  19 

Villard,  O.  G.,  294 

Vineland,  N.  J.,  71 

Vineyard,  Martha's,  154 

Virginia,  326 

Vision,  59 

Vocational  guidance,  371 

Vocational  training,  371 

Voisin,  206 

Volta  bureau,  154 


W 

Wales,  122,  138 

Wallin,  J.  E.  W.,  188 

Walter,  H.  E.,  435 

War,  318 

Wame,  F.  J.,  304 

Washington,  192,  208 

Washington.  D.  C,  154,  233,  261, 

286 
Washington,  G.,  337 
Washington  Seminary,  242 
Weakness,  matings  involving,  200 
Webb,  S.,  269 
Wedgewood,  E.,  208 
Weismann,  A.,  25,  26,  44,  431 
Weldon,  W.  F.  R.,  99,  118 
Wellesley   College,    235,    239,    242, 

262,  263" 
Wellesley  scholarships,  262 
Welsh,  259,  311 
West,  B.,  342 
West,  J.,  132 

West  north  central  states,  358 
West  south  central  states,  358 
West  Virginia,  187 
Westergaard,  H.,  57 
Wheat,  104 

Whetham,  W.  C.  D.,  435,  436 
White  slavery,  193 
Whitman,  C.  O.,  348 
Who's  Who,  246 
Willcox,  W.  F.,  269 
Williams,  W.,  303 
William  the  Conqueror,  338 
William  of  Occam,  93 
William  of  Orange,  19 
William  the  Silent,  19 
Wilson,  J.  A.,  13 
Wilson,  W.,  310 
Wisconsin,  172,  194 
Wisconsin,  University  of,  45,  63,  244 
Woman  suffrage,  380 
Woman's  colleges,  383 


Woods,  A.  W.,  334 
Woods,  E.  B.,  372,  373 
Woods,  F.  A.,  3,  17,  18, 

260,  327,  341,  373 
Wright,  L.  E.,  314 
Wright,  S.,  vi.,  433 


INDEX 


459 


Young  Peoples  Society  of  Christian 
Endeavor,  234 
19,  89,  144,      Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, 235 

Yule,  G.  U.,  144 


Yale  College,  245,  265,  266 
Yerkes,  R.  M.,  87,  88 
Young    Men's    Christian    Associa- 
tion, 155,  235, 336 


Zero  Family,  168 
Zygote,  26,  443 
Zymotic,  443 
Zulus,  284 


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